


I'll Cross Worlds For You

by loveL



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, F/F, F/M, Gen, Multiverse, Panic Attacks, Single Parents, Slow Burn, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-14 17:53:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 29,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28924644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loveL/pseuds/loveL
Summary: Caitlin is brought to a whole new universe by a soulmate breech, her connection to someone she has never met literally pulling her across the multiverse. She finds herself stuck with cold powers and on another earth separated from her son and her soulmate no where to be found.(I'll work on another summary later)
Relationships: Barry Allen & Caitlin Snow, Barry Allen/Caitlin Snow
Comments: 24
Kudos: 34





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So this isn't cannon but I am sticking to the multiverse thing with a few changes.
> 
> And to those reading my other fic I'm sorry I haven't updated in so long and I'm not sure if I'll continue.

"Hello... hello? Miss? Are you okay?" Caitlin blinked her eyes anpickinened her head spinning. She looked around the unfamiliar room, her entire body ached and she gave into the urge to close her eyes again and fall back into the darkness. "No, don't go back to sleep, please. You need to stay awake" the unfamiliar voice begged but the darkness was just so inviting.

When she came to again she was more aware of her surroundings the room she was in had no windows and the only light was coming from a light dim flickering bulb. She queried her eyes closed against the headache the light caused and blinked them open slowly again. Something was wrong. Someone was talking to her and- something was very wrong.

"Easy does it'' the male voice said she turned to him. Her limbs ached as she moved. She felt all wrong and drowsy her throat felt like sandpaper when she groaned at the tightness in her muscles. "Hi- the stranger continued his face coming into focus, it soon became clear that she didn't know this man. Dark tired eyes looked back at her in concern, his caramel skin a stark contrast to her paleness and messy shoulder length raven hair strewn about at odd angles.

"Who-who are you?" Caitlin croaked her throat burning with the effort

"Im Cisco" he explained softly "here" he handed her some water "do you know where you are? Do you know why you're here?"

She gulped down the water without a second thought then realised that she probably shouldn't have done that because she was currently in a strange place with a strange man and it could be poison.

"I was in my car" she breathed "there was a light thing, and I don't remember anything after that… where am I?"

"we're in a meta cell, somewhere by the coast I think," Cisco said looking around it. Then Caitlin noticed they were in fact in a 6'' x 8'' cell there were two sets of bunk beds in the room along with a toilet and sink.

There was a steel door with a small slot on it.

Caitlin was so confused. Was this a dream? How did she get here? It had to be a dream.

"Why?" Was the only thing she managed to ask 

Cisco frowned "because of them, the rebels" he said like it was obvious 

"The rebels? Why have they locked us up?"

"No no the rebels haven't locked us up they would never, we're here because of them"

"I- I don't- I don't understand? Where are we? Who are you?" Caitlin started hyperventilating and her chest tightened as she began to panic. She had already asked these questions. She knew that but she couldn't think straight, nothing was right.

What about her son? Where was her son? Where was Alex? Oh god she had left him with a babysitter when she never showed up and they would take her son from her, she was going to lose her son. Caitlin couldn't breath, her son was probably so scared and alone he probably thought she'd left him. What if she died here? He would grow up thinking she didn't love him. 

"Hey- hey, it's okay I'm sure we'll be rescued soon" Cisco said but Caitlin couldn't hear him. She was so panicked she felt like she was under water.

Gasping for breath she held her sides trying to pull herself back together because she had to stay calm but oh-god she had been kidnapped she had been kidnapped she was being held against her will- what were they going to do to her? 

She couldn't breath.

"Hey it's okay, its okay" the man said gently "just breath, deep breath in its okay we'll be rescued soon I'm sure of it" he soothed "just breath" he reached out to touch her but Caitlin flinched away

"Don't" who even was this guy? Could she trust him? He could be one of the bad guys put in this call with her to gain information, she wasn't okay. This wasn't okay- her son Alex had taken her from her son she was going to lose her son.

That was it she passed out.

***

When she woke up again she almost thought it was a dream.

"Alex?" She called "Alex? Are you awake?"

No response

Caitlin sat up and looked around "oh

"Stay calm, you're okay" a voice said the- Cisco he said his name was Cisco.

"...Hi"

"Are you- are you okay? You had a panic attack a pretty bad one"

"I'm- I feel…what's going on?- have I been kidnapped?"

"Yes, but we'll be saved very soon I promise, no one is going to hurt us they wouldn't"

"You- you said something about rebels" she said because she couldn't panic now she had to get out of here and freaking out again wouldn't help anyone it wouldn't help her get back to her son.

"Well, some people call them rebels, some call them superheros, vigilantes… I prefer rebels. We were taken because of them"

"I don't understand, is this some weird larping or something? Because it's not funny I want to go home I have a son and he needs me- I can't be here" 

"You really don't know what I'm talking about do you?" Cisco asked but he had a feeling he already knew. "What earth are you from?"

"What? Earth I'm from earth- the planet earth. What is going on?!"

"Oh damn" Cisco muttered "you're from one of those earths, I suppose you don't have metas on your earth either. Don't worry, we'll get you home my soulmate and I we created breeches like the one you came through I just don't have my powers right now and my soulmate is- well she's not on this earth right now- but she'll be here soon"

"Not on this earth? Powers I- your crazy" Caitlin repeated certain she was hearing things 

"Yeah…" he said frowning "she's my soulmate, soulmates are drawn to each other across the multiverse and my soulmate while she's currently not in this universe so they took me to get her"

"So- your -your wife is just going to fall into their trap and you're okay with that?"

Cisco smiled smugly "it's not their trap, it's hers."

"Your wife is holding us captive?"

"No no of course not" he said his eyes widening "I got caught on purpose so she could save me and catch these guys" he said slowly leaning towards hee and glancing up at the security camera "You weren't part of the plan now, do you remember how you got caught?"

"I-I was just in my car driving home and there was this…" she swallowed trying to think about it "this light in the middle of the road I- I swerved and I got out the car and I just walked into the light thing- I don't know why- I felt like I had to… the light it was i think it- was like folding in on itself and I just i don't know why i walked into it but I did and then I was… it… I was in the same place but there were these people wearing all white like robes and they- they grabbed me and I woke up here"

"That's-" Cisco smiled comfortingly "of course you don't understand your not from here." He ran a hand down his face and began to explain everything… and everything was a lot. 

She was in another universe. A universe where people had powers meta humans he had called it, and Cisco was a meta human.

"It's a soulmate thing" he explained "soulmates share soul DNA so they have similar or the same powers, they share other things to like skills and hobbies, Cynthia is great at those 3D puzzles I'm great at them to it's a lame example bit it's the truth…" he trailed off "and what happened to you the portable you saw to your soulmate it- there not uncommon people wander to this earth all the time" he shrugged "Your just drawn to your soulmate no one knows why exactly it just happens it always has even before metas were created"

Was it weird that she believed this craziness "so my soulmate" she repeated "where is he? If i was drawn to him then does that mean the people who are holding us captive are-"

Cisco winced "it's- there's a very small chance that may be- but I found that soulmates are like each other and you don't seem like the type to lock people in cells. I think they think your soulmate is a rebel or someone else of importance. When they grabbed you, did they do anything, run any tests, did they do anything unusual?"

"No" Caitlin shook her head "not that I can remember"

"Good that's- good it means you're probably just normal most people from other earth's aren't metas anyway"

Caitlin nodded absently. Other earth's her mind echoed. She had left her son on another earth. Her stomach knotted in a way that made her feel sick.

"about- 16 hours whatever sedative they gave you it knocked you out good"

Oh god.

She was supposed to be home by 9 what had the babysitter done? Did she call CPS? Was she going to lose custody this couldn't be happening.

"Are you okay? You've gone pale, are you feeling sick?"

Caitlin swallowed "I- I my- my son he- he's at home and- the oh god my son he- what if I never see him again?"

"You will. Okay? you will I promise" Cisco assured her "it's really not long now my wife will come for us"

Caitlin couldn't stop shaking "You dont understand hes all I- he's all I have" she chucked on a sob "I can't- I can't lose my son because of some- some portal"

"I understand why you're upset, okay? But it's going to all be alright" he tried to assure her "what's your name?" He asked when he didn't know what else to tell her because she clearly wasn't listening to him.

"Caitlin"

"Well Caitlin, I give you my word we will get out of this and you will get to see your son again" he put a hand over his heart "I promise"

Caitlin seemed to calm a little at that and wrung her shaking hands together "how much longer?"

Cisco grimaced knowing she didn't want to hear this "a few more hours" he admitted "they won't come until the morning" he said lowly, mindful of the security camera in case they could read lips because Cisco knew there was no audio.

"Oh god" Caitlin swallowed "Child protective services they'll take him from me for abandoning him"

"But you didn't abandon him, this is out if your control"

"And what will I tell them? I was taken to another universe because of my soulmate!?" She exploded and felt something cold stir under her skin but as quickly as it came it was gone.

"I don't know" Cisco ran a hand through his hair "I don't know" he repeated, he was out of his depth here Caitlin wasn't part of the plan at all but it seemed the universe had different plans.

***

Neither of them slept much at all that night water was brought to them at some point but that was in the early hours of the morning Caitlin laid on the bottom bunk and Cisco on the top bunk, they talked about everything but nothing important, Cisco vaguely answered her questions about the rebels not wanting to give much away in case her or her soulmate was on the wrong side.

"Well I guess you'd say they're vigilantes story of… but they also fight for what's right especially metahuman rights"

"So you're telling me you're all superheroes?" Caitlin said disbelieving 

Cisco smiled "well we're not the avengers"

Caitlin huffed imaging Cisco dressed as captain America "we're cooler than the avengers" he added 

Caitlin rolled her eyes "don't let Alex hear you say that, he loves spider-man"

"Sounds like a cool kid"

"He is" Caitlin breathed "I miss him so much"

As if the universe was listening, the door slammed open and she and Cisco both startled and sat up.

"Cisco!" Cynthia said, running to him and embracing him "we need to go now." she said urgently her eyes frantically searching him over she looked over her shoulder at the door then paused as if finally registering Caitlin "who-"

"No time" Cisco said opening a breech "she's on our side" reaching over Cisco grabbed his new friend 

"Did you take care of the guards?" He asked when foot steps began to approach 

"I thought I did give me a minuet-" she began

"No." he shook his head "gypsy we need to go now"

She narrowed her eyes at her husband "Take her. I'll only be a minuet-"

"I'm not letting you do this alone" he objected grabbing her hand as she moved away 

"Cisco!" She snapped yanking her arm out of his grasp "Go! I've got this. Take care if her"

Cisco cursed "that women" he offered Caitlin a somewhat comforting smile and cocked his head towards the breech "come on we really don't have time the dampeners could go back up any moment" and with that he practically shoved her inside.

She was disoriented and dizzy for a moment as the world melted into greys and electric blues the ground fell from beneath her feet but just as quickly as it happened the world morphed back into its regular colour but they weren't in some sort of base.

Caitlin took in her surroundings, she was in some sort of basement or in a bunker? She didn't know. Her eyes flickered from the concrete pillars to the steel desk with the computers and monitors and then to… mannequins? 

There were about 12 of them lined up against the wall with superhero suits on some of them were empty but others were dressed and standing proudly, frowning she turned to Cisco who rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly 

"Umm- yeah we probably set of an alarm since- I shouldn't have brought you here" he looked at the clock with a grimace "any second now"

"What are you talking ab-"

Caitlin was cut off by a gust of wind and she stared at a man? In red spandex wearing a mask that looked uncomfortable. Besides him stood a woman in white leather carrying- is that a dagger? 

This was all too much and she didn't know how to react to this because how? How does someone react to this? 

"I- I uh" caitlin opened and closed her mouth "what- is- I- I don't- I-um-what?" Heart beating so fast Caitlin forgot how to breathe because of superpowers? It was one thing being told about it but it was another thing to witness it.

"Breathe Caitlin" Cisco prompted 

"It's just- I-" she exhaled "I'm in a different universe and my son- oh god- Alex and- wow- and you know super powers" she was breathing heavily now and a cold chill rolled across her body.

"It's okay its okay" Cisco tried to comfort her "your safe just calm down" Cisco reached out to touch her but she flinched away 

"Don't touch me" she raised her hands defensively and to her horror her hands were frosting over? Waves of cold seeping out of her skin, weaving between her fingers and crawling up towards her wrist "oh god- wha- what- did you do?- I didn't I don't- oh god whats- what's happening? What am I- oh god- I can't- I can't breath"

"Caitlin, Caitlin it's okay- it's o-"

That was it she passed out.


	2. The one with all the time travel talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Caitlin wakes up in a panic and meets Barry and the team.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I completely made up all the DNA stuff and the method of time travel that their using, I don't know if it would be possible for Barry to bring Caitlin with him in that globe thing that Eobard Thawn made but its possible in this fic.

The bed she was lying on was firm, the sheets were a thick linen she knew this before she even opened her eyes, her eyes were heavy with sleep and her finger tips were tingling, it was a feeling she had felt before but couldn't quite place, her throat felt dry and that was what got her to eventually open her eyes. She needed to get up she had to leave the bed and get a drink- she had to wake Alex up she had work and he had nursery she had to-

"Hey" a voice said softly from besides her 

Shifting into a sitting up position Caitlin felt a tug in the crook of her arm looking over she realised she was hooked up to an IV she frowned for a second as everything came back to her "what is this…" she trailed off not knowing what to ask 

"Your safe" he assured her "your okay"

Caitlin looked over at him "your- your the guy who- red spandex and you know you appeared out of nowhere" she said her voice sounding and feeling scratchy

Barry was taken aback by that not sure how she recognised him because he had being wearing his suit and mask so there was no way for her to know "I'm Barry" he said neither confirming or denying what she had said "You passed out you were dehydrated and in shock, you should be okay now though, do you want some water?" He asked reached back towards a glass he had left on the table 

Nodding she accepted needing a drink before she tried to speak again with her dry throat "...thankyou" she handed the glass back over to him and it was then she noticed the black cuff on her wrist, what the-

The ice or frost whatever it was that had been real? She hadn't hallucinated that, what had she done? Had she hurt someone? Where did the ice even come from? 

"I can tell your freaking out. Cisco said he explained metahumans to you and where they come from" he said calmly

"Did I hurt someone?"

"No" he assured her "everyone is okay"

she nodded feeling a fraction better "...Cisco said there was an explosion with dark matter and people were affected b-but that didn't happen to me I- I'm not from here I was in a different universe"

He gave her a patient smile that was surprisingly calming " your soulmate was here, on this earth when the explosion happened and because it was so powerful it affected your soulmate bond and changed your DNA but only slightly you wouldn't have noticed"

"B-but but I couldn't do that before" 

Barry nodded "there's still dark matter in the air and always will be there's no way to get rid of it so when you arrived here your powers were kick started by the dark matter, you were in a meta proofed cell before that's why you didn't manifest your powers before now, Cisco didn't mention you having powers so I'm assuming that was the first time"

Caitlin nodded "yeah. It was, where is Cisco?"

"He's asleep, I can go wake him" he offered 

"Asleep" Caitlin repeated then glanced towards a window the blinds were closed but there was no sunlight "what time is it?"

Barry hesitated "last time i checked it had just gone 4am"

"What?" She asked breathlessly panic gripping her "no no no no no. I- I can't still be here I need to go home- my- my son I have to go I have to get him- he's alone and I can't- I need to go" she reached for the needle in her arm removing it and applying the pressure to the needle puncture while ignoring Barry's objectections 

"I'm sorry but you can't leave yet- stop" he said and winced when she pulled the needle "you shouldn't do that-"

Caitlin didn't expect the light headedness when she stood up but it overwhelmed her and she had to sit back down. "I have to go" she repeated on the edge of a panic attack

"And how are you going to do that?" Barry asked trying to make her see reason "your in another universe, I understand that you want to go home and be with your son and I'm so sorry but you can't right now"

"But I have to" she said weakly "I need to go home"

Barry felt sympathy tug at him "you'll get to go home I promise, your not a prisoner here but you must understand why we can't let you go straight home, you have powers we need to learn more about them so you don't hurt yourself or others we can't just send you back to another universe where you'll be the only meta, it's not safe and you need a support system" he explained 

He made some good points but Alex was her priority "I don't care I need to go home to my son you don't understand-"

"What if you hurt him? What if you lose control and you hurt your family?" He asked 

"I would never hurt him" Caitlin said flatly

"I know, but you might not mean to" he said gently "we hear of cases like that all the time, people who aren't in control and don't know how to handle their powers. I have a friend who kept fainting because his powers had a side effect that he didn't realise. Caitlin it's not safe to send you back not yet"

Her lower lip shivered and she swallowed "he's all I have, I'm all he has- he- we don't have any other family the babysitter would've called CPS by now" Caitlin ran a hand through her hair in frustration "I'm going to lose my son. He's going to go into the system and I'm not going to get him back" she said brokenly "everyone including Alex will think I abandoned him and what happens when I do go back? What will I do? Tell them I was in another universe and couldn't come home because I got superpowers?" She said bitterly her voice cracking "I'm not going to lose my son over this. I can't"

Barry sighed not expecting this. This was a complication, they couldn't take a mother away from her child that wasn't fair, none of this was Caitlin's fault. 

"Okay" Barry said formulating a plan in his head "we can't do anything tonight though"

"But-"

"Everyone else is asleep and we need Cisco or Cynthia to open a breach to your universe, we also need to pinpoint what earth your from'' Caitlin nodded despite wanting to protest some more but she understood. "We need more information about your earth though so we can get you back to your son and I'll have to discuss it with everyone else but I'm sure they'll agree, I promise your not going to lose your son" he said sincerely

Caitlin believed him. "Okay"

"You must be hungary" Barry said changing the subject "come on let's get you something to eat we can talk and then you can try get a few hours of sleep"

She followed him into the kitchen trusting him. why? she wasn't exactly sure but she trusted him and she was hungry.

"Where am I exactly?" She asked wearily as she eyed the hallway and the giant windows at the end of the hall a quick glance outside told her she was at least on the 20th floor.

"This is our base of operation" Barry said ominously "but we live here to"

"Cisco said your rebels"

Barry scowled at that "No- we- I" he cleared his throat "we're super heros" 

Caitlin almost laughed at that because seriously? Life wasn't a comic book.

"Right…" she said slowly "so you just… you- like stop muggings in your red spandex?" 

"I- what no- well yes but i- I'm not the flash"

"Who?" 

"The flash" Barry repeated sounding offended that she hadn't heard of him because everyone knew of the flash; he wasn't used to people not knowing who the flash was but Caitlin was from another earth. "He's got super speed he can throw lightning bolts and phase through buildings, he's saved the city plenty of times once he even unwound a tornado" he bragged and Caitlin rolled her eyes

"Why are you talking about yourself in the 3rd person?" Caitlin asked making it clear she knew he was this 'flash'

"I…" he looked at her and the look she gave him showed there was no convincing her otherwise "how do you know?"

Caitlin thought about it because how did she know? "I- I don't know… I mean I just saw you and well-I just know, I mean your head is the same shape" she said lamley "I don't know how- I know… your the same person it's pretty obvious" 

"Oh… well it's a not so secret identity anyway, but the world doesn't know so I would appreciate if you keep it yourself" 

"Of course, who do I have to tell?" She said with a nervous laugh 

They reached the dimly lit kitchen and the lights turned on as they entered "Gideon" Barry greeted 

"Yes Mr. Allen?" A voice rang out and Caitlin flinched in surprise looking around for the source of the voice 

"Oh i'm- sorry I should've mentioned Gideon is our AI, she practically runs this place"

"Practically? I do run this place" The AI mocked 

"She's also developed an attitude" Barry said fondly then gestured for Caitlin to sit down at the table in the kitchen.

"Gideon this is my friend Caitlin she's from another earth and we need to know which one can you help us out?"

"Of course, I've sent a list of questions to you phone"

Barry's phone chimed and he looked down at it "perfect Gideon thankyou, do we have any pop tarts left?"

"Unfortunately not, Mr. Rory ate the last of them but there are some pastries in the pantry and several fruit salad boxes in the fridge" she Informed him politely 

Barry thanked Gideon and set some food and something to drink in front of Caitlin before he started asking the questions Gideon provided "Okay so like Cisco explained every earth is different but most are quite similar in appearance and technological advancements some even have the same people"

Caitlin nodded her head still spinning with the revelation.

"These questions are all easy, for example who's the President?"

"Philip Kaye"

Barry nodded taking notes in between bites of fruit "The matriarch currently ruling england?"

"Queen Elizabeth the second" 

Barry nodded "fun fact about the multiverse Queen Elizabeth is the Queen of England In at least 450 earths, we don't know why she just is. Have there been any recent deversating events? Like natural disasters, terror attacks or pandemics?"

"There was a flood somewhere in Asia I don't know where exactly but i know 825 people died and there were 3500 injuries"

"What about soulmates? Do you have them in any form on your earth? A timer, identical marks, colour blindness until you meet your soulmate?"

"No. No nothing like that" 

Barry looked sympathetic as he nodded and asked more questions about the latest technology, energy methods, global warming, the most famous people are.

"Gideon did you get all that?" Barry asked 

"Affirmative"

"And have we found the earth?"

"Indeed, the earth described matches one in the database, earth 63, population 9 billion, on this earth there are no reports of metahumans or anything supernatural including soulmates" 

Barry nodded turning to Caitlin "What's your full name? We need more information about you and your son Gideon and look for missing persons reports and see what actions have been taken with your son"

"Caitlin Elizabeth Snow. Born 23rd May 1995, I live in central city and my son's name is Alexander Thomas Henry Snow, born 9th October 2017"

"Gideon?"

"There has in fact been a missing persons case opened for Miss.Snows after her car was found abandoned on the side of the road but I can't find any mention of Alexander"

Caitlin felt her heart drop, what did that mean? Where was her son?

"What- what does that mean?" She asked her panic spiking 

"I don't know, maybe he hasn't been put into the police system? he'll show up, maybe the babysitter left him with a trusted neighbour of yours?"

Her lower lip trembled as she shook her head "I don't know the neighbors we moved in a few months ago and-and it's oh my god-"

"It's okay, it's okay" he tried. "I know that things don't feel okay because a lot has happened, I can't even begin to imagine" he reached out hesitantly giving her time to move away but she let him touch her. He place a hand on her shoulder "but you need to breath"

She inhaled and exhaled slowly following his instructions "I need my son- I-I can't lose my son"

"Okay okay '' Barry soothed "we'll get your son I promise" he felt a cold chill run through him and he looked down to see Caitlins finger tips frosting over. "Okay" he repeated cautiously reaching for the settings on the cuffs "you need to calm down, you might hurt yourself" he tugged at her wrists gently ignoring the cold and turning the dampeners up and the frost disappeared.

"Ho-how am I doing this? I didn't mean to, I'm sorry it- was an accident I-I dont think that I'm in control" Caitlin rambled "I'm sorry, I'm sorry- I can't control it or stop it it's all too much"

"I know" he assured her "I know. Listen I shouldn't tell you this but I can get your son back, I- can-uh time travel"

She frowned "time travel? So you can go back and stop me from ending up here in the first place?"

He winced "umm no. Fate wanted you here so no matter what anyone does I can't stop you from ending up in this universe but I can take you to the time you were supposed to be home so you can get your son and bring him here"

"Bring him here? You want me to bring my son to another universe?" She said anger clear in her voice

"Yes. You can't go back to your earth until you get your powers under control and your son can't stay there alone. He'll be safe here, where's safer than a building full of superheroes? We can protect him, we can protect both" 

"I can't just uproot our lives he's a child. He won't understand" 

"How old is he?-

"He's 2 almost 3" 

"Little kids can adjust, I'm sure he'll be fine. We have everything here he could possibly need unless… there's something else that you want to stay for?"

She shook her head slowly. There was nothing at home that she would miss, she had no one but her son she hadn't spoken to her mother in years Alex's father was an abusive asshole who was thankfully in jail now. 

She would miss her boss but he would understand her need to get away and it wasn't like she would never come back, she didn't have any friends Hunter had isolated her from all her friends and they gave up trying to contact her. A fresh start was exactly what she needed but in another universe?

"It's crazy"

"It is" he agreed "but it's safe and sort of your only option right now"

She actually laughed at that "as safe as having a 2 year old around enhanced individual can be? Do you know what your asking me to do?" She shook her head rubbing her temples 

"I do know what I'm asking" he said gently "but unless you see any other options this is the best we've got, I'll call a team meeting once everyones had there coffee but I don't see any other way" he admitted while his mind scrambled for other ideas that could make this easier for her and Alex.

Worrying her lower lip she nodded "...why is this my life?" She burried her face in her hands "I want to wake up… this- this doesn't feel real, how can this be happening?" She muttered to herself 

Bary made a sympathetic sound and hesitantly placed a hand on her shoulder in comfort "I get that but as crazy as this is, it's real" he glanced at his watch "now do you think you'll be able to go back to sleep?"

She looked up at him and shook her head slowly "no, there's just too much going on"

"That's fine. I actually have some stuff for you to read, give me a moment" Barry whized of and she was left startled and fixing her hair. Barry came back the second she got her hair back to normal and he handed her a book and a few leaflets, at first glance she saw the words 'So your in another universe'

"Seriously?"

Barry shrugged "it was made for situations like yours. Minus the super powers"

"No I mean we're not going to talk about the super-speed thing?"

Barry shrugged "I have super-speed, I can run really fast, I'm a meta-human. If you think about it there's not much to say on the matter. You already know how I got my powers" 

Caitlin tilted her head slightly then shook her head to herself muttering something about this being 'crazy under her breath. She shifted her attention to the leaflets Barry had gotten for her. She picked one up thr bright pink layers proclaiming 'so you have a soulmate' 

"I don't have a soulmate"

"Of course you do" 

"Well they're not here"

"Yeah…" barry trailed off "its strange, i've never heard of anyone just showing up in the middle of the road, its usually somewhere the person frequents like there home, workplace, favourite park or restaurant" he listed 

"Maybe it was a mistake? Maybe it was just an anomaly I was brought here by accident"

"You have powers" he pointed out "so your soulmate likely has powers too and this is one of the few earths that has metahumans and soulmates"

"Cisco said there was someone there. There was no one there just those people…" she trailed off "maybe i don't have one"

"Everyone has a soulmate" he repeated "maybe yours just got lost? I don't know but you'll find them, once this has all settled and you have your son and a grasp on your powers we'll look for your soulmate but until then we can get gideon to monitor the media incase someone around that area noticed the breech and your kidnapping and thinks there your soulmate"

"You seem sure of yourself" she mused

"I am" he said confidently 

"So you've met yours" She asked knowingly 

He rubbed the back of his neck "actually- uh no" 

That surprised her "so then why are you so confident?"

He shrugged "soulmates have always been a thing in my life, theres never been a question about it"

She tilted her head pursing her lips "...that must be nice, to be certain… does everyone meet their soulmate?"

He hesitated and that was all she needed to know "...well there's like a 5% chance you won't meet them but that depends on things like where you are in the world although there was a study into bad people and their soulmates because soulmates are alike in some ways for example they like the same music or they grew up in similar backgrounds but there are only so many psychotic criminals so people like that don't often have soulmates"

She nodded absently still flicking through the leaflet "How do you know who your soulmate is?" She skimmed the first paragraph with a frown "you have to kiss them? That's very… disney"

"Technically Disney stole the idea. Although now there are other forms of testing since soulmates can be platonic like best friends or parent and child, there's this famous case of a sort of father son relationship, this 13 year old kid started an internship at this multi billion dollar company they were both smart and formed a father son bond- totally platonic there wss nothing romantic about it the kids father died when he was a baby and his soulmate became a father figure to him… I think their making it into a movie actually"

"So… my soulmate could be a child?"

"Yes and you don't have to kiss them to find out we have DNA kits for all that now"

"That's good but how can you tell through DNA?"

"Well there's these markers in the blood that are unique to you and your soulmate it's what makes you similar to your soulmate its also what makes bonding possible it's why your soulmate is the perfect organ donder, if your to ever need that…" he trailed off "soulmates are just- their the missing piece you know? They're everything you need even down to a biological level and while not all soulmate couples are romantic or heterosexual they have higher fertility rates to" Barry said quoting his 4th grade teacher

She nodded wordlessly looking back down at the leaflet in front of her "this is a lot"

"I know" he blew out a breath we can talk about something else if that's easier?"

"Yeah, that- I'd prefer that"

He nodded in understanding "so umm what do you do? For work I mean" 

"Lab work mainly, I'm a biochemist" 

"That's cool we don't have one of those"

"One of those?" She mocked raising an eyebrow at him

He cringed "Thats not what I mean. I mean that the team is filled with scientists, we have a handful of engineers, doctors, computer scientists, physicists"

"That must come in handy" she commented 

"Oh it does" he agreed 

"So what do you do? Apart from the flash thing"

"I'm in forensics, I work for the CCPD"

She frowned "CCPD… central city?"

"Yes. Yes exactly. Do you live in central city?"

"I- uh… I did but then the bombings started and we moved to keystone and my boss- Dr. Wells gave me a job there"

"Bombings?" He asked curiously 

"Yeah my boss he- uh tried to build a-"

"Particle accelerator?" He cut in

"N-no" she frowned at him "he tried to build a water filter to purify all the Cities water without having to add chemicals to clean the water but something went wrong ans he poisoned half the city," she grimaced at the thought "It wasn't as bad as it sounds I mean- it gave me an upset stomach but some people died so when they bombed the underground water system and then threatened to bomb where I worked I decided it was time to leave"

Barry gaped that was certainly a new Harrison Wells story, he hadn't met one that had done a good thing on purpose only for it to turn on him. This earths Harrison wells died before barry met him only for him to be taken over by an evil speedster from the future who killed his mother and the earth 2 Harry that had taken his place was a good guy but he was a mad antisocial genius with no bedside manner.

"Oh that sounds awful. Central city on this earth is literally known for being safe and sunny but we so get the odd meta attack but we take care of it" he shrugged playing it down big time, he wasn't lying they did take care of the metas but not before they caused damage. Zoom came to mind but that was years ago and he'd long since vanished.

Caitlin was frowning again and Barry desperately wanted to smooth the creases out and put her at ease. "So you're regularly attacked by other meta-humans? that's not that safe what if they come after all of you and-"

Ah. So she wasn't buying his bullshit then? "That won't happen" he said quickly "No one knows where we are or who we are, we've taken every precaution"

She still looked skeptical but her expression changed when she caught sight of the clock "shouldn't you still be asleep? With all the running around you do, don't you get tired?"

He shrugged "not more than normal as long as i eat enough I'm fine I have a super fast metabolism" 

That seemed to peak her interest

"how much do you need to eat? How fast can you go? Have you ever ran so fast all the friction has set you on fire? If you can phase through things can you become invisible?"

"Well I need to eat about 10,000 calories and I don't think that-"

"A couple of early birds I see" a voice drowned, walking into the kitchen and heading straight to the coffee pot.

Caitlin stared and stared becuase what the fuck? Was this all a joke she didn't know about? They were larping weren't they?! Anger bubbled up inside her at the thought "Doctor Wells?!" She demanded

He turned to her barely sparing her a glance "ah your the new one" he said changing the coffee filters "so what did my doppelganger do to you huh? Create a talking gorilla and set it loose on the city? Scam your family out of millions? Blow up a particle accelerator and give you power? Kill your mother?"

Caitlin stared at him, her mouth open as she tried to process what he was saying "um..uh- I... What?" She asked a little breathless her mind spinning with confusion

"This is Harry" Barry jumped in "You know his doppelganger Harrison wells, there are a lot of them out there"

It was the most bizzare thing she had ever heard but she understood and maybe that was worse?

"Oh…" she cleared her throat shifting in her seat as she tried to remember how to speak in sentences "well you-uh my Harrison- did poison half the city"

Harry scoffed looking to the ceiling "of course I did"

"but your the best man I know- well he is" she added more softly and that got his attention and she flushed with embarrassment because this wasn't the father figure she looked up to this was a stranger "Harrison wells was one of my professors in University, when i couldn't finish the last year I was pregnant he offered me a job instead" she smiled at the memory "I owe him a lot"

Now it was Harry's turn to be at a loss for words and it made Barry smile "This is Caitlin" he introduced proudly 

He stared at the young woman for another moment before turning back to the coffee maker, his mask falling back into place, "I heard. Cryokinesis, that'll be interesting"

Caitlin stared at the cuffs around her wrists, her lower lip finding its way between her teeth again.

"Team meeting at 8" Barry informed Harry "if you can tell the others that'll be great but I've already sent a message via gideon"

"I thought Oliver revoked your power to call team meetings after you called a team meeting about people eating your food" 

Barry's expression shifted to a murderous one "you know if i don't eat I will actually die"

Harry shrugged "so can anyone"

Barry rolled his eyes "well this isn't about food. I want to time travel"

"No. no absolutely not"

"You haven't even heard my reasoning, you haven't let me explain just-"

"No"

"It's not up to you"

"But I get a vote and my answer is no"

"You haven't even let me explain-"

"It's dangerous. No."

Barry clenched his jaw but didn't say anything else on the matter "you'll be at the meeting?"

He threw his hands up in frustration "of course I'll be at the meeting" he poured himself a cup of coffee "i have stuff to do in thr lab, see you later don't do anything stupid while I'm gone" he said with a pointed look

"Dangerous?" She asked as soon as Harry left

Barry hesitated "not for me but uh- I did something a few years ago and I kind of erased one of our friends from our lives and he sort of became a super villain…" Barry trailed off then winced "and uh- my old foster sister gave us really bad press so now some people hate us"

"That's terrible"

"I know but I didn't know that was going to happen, I just… my mother was murdered when i was 11 and I just needed her back especially after my father died" he shook his head as the weight of it all began to crush him "I- it was- I couldn't cope I was in a really bad place, if I hadn't gone back and fixed things… I don't know where I'd be now" he mentally cursed himself for unloading all of that onto a stranger that he wanted to trust him.

Caitlim thought it over for a moment, the wheels turning in her head "I'm sorry that happened to you. It doesn't seem fair"

Barry looked away not knowing what to say, it was all in the past now. It had been 4 yeara and the memories of thr previous timeline were beginning to fade, like waking up from a bad dream.

"So if you time travel to get my son then bad things will happen?" Caitlin asked cautiously 

"No- well yes but not in this case were only going back a day and as long as we limit contact with people but this universe won't be affected anyway since the time travel won't happen in this universe so nothing here will change. This timeline will be completely fine but time travel is something of an open wound so I just need to make them understand that"

"How does it work? Time travel?"

Barry launched into an explanation about time travel and how he had first discovered it, he then went onto explain the sepher that the- fake Harrison wells- had invented to enable someone else to time travel along with a speedster.

"Caitlin you're awake'' Cisco chirped happily and pulled her into a hug so fast Caitlin couldn't do anything but pretend to like it. She cringed but patted him on the back awkwardly.

"Good morning Cisco" she returned pulling away "how are you?"

"Do you want coffee?" Cisco asked turning to the coffee marker and avoiding her question "do you like coffee?"

"I like coffee" she said nodding and she was thankful when Cisco was out of her space

"Barry you called a meeting?" Cisco said casually "did Mick eat your poptarts again?"

"Yes" he grumbled, "but that's not what this is about"

Cisco slurped his coffee "did you get a break in the Ronald McDonald case?"

Barry looked visibly irritated "its not called that and you know it. But no that's not it i want to time travel"

"Cool"

"No not cool" Oliver said walking in "that's what this meeting is about? If you told me I wouldn't have bothered coming up here" he grumbled 

Caitlin stared at him in surprise because she knew who this was he was all over the news a few years ago.

"Hi" he said extending his hand to her "I'm Oliver Queen"

She shook his hand "yeah- I- I know who you are. I'm Caitlin Snow"

"You know who I am?" He asked releasing her hand and tilting his head curiously 

Whe nodded slowly "yeah- in my universe" she began and took a moment to realise how that sounded "on my earth you were all over the news a couple years ago"

"All good things I hope?" He asked with a charming smile

Caitlin bit her lip to stop herself from cringing "no, not really you- well you died"

"Oh… how'd it happen?" He asked curiously 

Caitlin felt the blush rise to her cheeks and she was suddenly very interested in her coffee mug she felt the eyes of Barry, Oliver and Cisco on her and she felt herself blush even more "you- my earths you had an anurism uh-during sex and you died… it was all over the news for 6 months and it lead to the girl killing herself because she and the media thought that uh... her vagina was cursed"

Silence. 

"Uh… wow" Oliver cleared his throat "okay" he shifted awkwardly on his feet and changed the subject "so you make things cold? 

The subject change made her dizzy "i guess…" she said quietly and took a sip of her coffee to avoid further conversation

"Where's Felicity?" Barry asked 

"She's on her way" 

"...so do those cuffs work for you?" Cisco asked nodding to the contraption on her wrists 

"Oh yes, they do" 

"Good I wasn't sure they'd work at first since we've never had anyone with ice powers before, your a first"

"How many-" she was cut off by the sound of a cup shattering as it was knocked off the counter she jumped her hands reflexively curling into fists and her body tensing.

"Sorry" Cisco apologised "I didn't look where I was putting my mug down and I missed the counter"

"Jumpy" Sara noted as she walked into the kitchen her eyes on Caitlin "although I suppose getting kidnapped has that effect on people. Hi I'm Sara and your Caitlin- basically Elsa"

She scowled "I'm nothing like Elsa"

"Barry wants to time travel" Oliver interrupted 

"Again?"

"What's going on? Whats happening again?" Felicity asked appearing in the door way

"Time travel"

"Cool"

Oliver gave her a look and she rolled her eyes.

"Why don't we take this into the office? Doesn't Ray have a rule against business at the dinner table?" Sara said leaning against the counter coffee cup in hand.

"Fine" Oliver said tightly. Barry gestured for her to follow him and she did timidly follow behind Barry to an office afew floors down.

"Its all going to be okay" he said tentatively "I'll talk to them and it'll all work out"

She nodded scared if she spoke she would cry because this was all too much so many new people- strangers, she had powers and they were all acting like it was fine but it was anything but. 

Sara had called it an office but it was more like a boardroom they even had chairs with their names on which Caitlin thought was a bit dramatic. The room was a rectangular shape with tall blue walls and a large oval table in the middle of the room seating about 25, there were more people in the room when they arrived and she saw the way their eyes lingered on her as she tried not to hide behind Barry and Cisco. She was seated between the two of them and she forced herself to breathe evenly as the room began to fill up with all sorts of different people.

She sat silently and tried to make herself small. The room continued to fill until everyone was seated.

Barry stood up and began to talk "by now i'm sure you've all heard what happened last night" he gestured to Caitlin "this is caitlin, she arrived through a soulmate breech a few days ago but she was taken and locked up with Cisco in a power dampening cell when they were rescued however we realised that Caitlin has powers, cryokinesis"

"What?" Jaxs asked 

"She makes things cold" Martin explained

"Cool" he snickered

"Anyway," Barry said tightly "she has powers that she needs to learn to control"

"Please just get to the point" Nate muttered "I have a meeting in an hour"

"Time travel"

Murmuring broke out across the table and Harry rubbed his temples in frustration, while Cisco stayed still in his seat sharing a look with his soulmate.

"Let me explain-"

"You do remember what happened last time?" Sara said seriously 

"Of course I do" he said flatly "but it won't be like that, just listen"

"What could you possibly have to say that would make this okay?" Diggle snapped 

"Caitlin has a son" That made them fall silent. "She has a son and Gideon can't find him. She's been missing for a while now even if she does go back to get him they'll ask too many questions and what are the chances they give a child back to a mother they think abandoned him? She can't tell them she was in another universe. Cecil you're a lawyer what are her chances of getting her son back? It's not fair that she loses her son because shes connected to us"

"What about his father?" Cecil asked the question directed at Caitlin 

"He's not in our lives" she replied cooley "Alex has never met him"

"Any other family members he can stay in the care of? Grandparents? Aunts, uncles? Any extended family?"

"My mother met him once as a baby, I haven't spoken to her in years, my dads dead and I don't have any other family" 

Cecil nodded wordlessly "then logically he'll be put with a foster family"

"Gideon has no record of him going into the system" Barry supplied

"It could take a while to be processed" Cecil explained 

"If I time travel in that universe it won't affect anything here and Caitlin will get her son back"

"You want to bring a child here?" Harry asked an obvious tone of disapproval in his voice

Barry nodded "What other options are there? She needs training that she can only get here and her son needs his mother, we're not that sort of people to leave a child motherless" 

"That doesn't make what we do here any safer, what if we're targeted and the child gets hurt?" Felicity asked

"That's not going to happen, we've been here for years and no one has bothered us and if the worse does happen I'm sure we're more than capable of protecting him" Barry argued 

"I agree with Barry" Zari said speaking up for the first time "we're not in the business of separating families and it'll only be for a few months and things have been quiet lately"

"Are we really considering this?" Oliver asked "no way can we be responsible for a child-"

"We won't be responsible" Harry agreed "we can't have a child here, I know he's her son but are we sure it's safe to have her around him? What if she loses control and hurts him or herself? We cant put him in danger"

Hearing those words hurt. She knew he wasn't the same Harrison she knew but hearing that he thought she was a danger to Alex hurt all the same.

"But he won't be in danger" cisco argued "she has the power dampening cuffs and they work. Its not like she'll be training with him in the room"

"How old is he?" Ray asked his question addressed at her

"He's 2" Caitlin said softly her hands shaking under the table "he'll be 3 in October"

"Hes practically a baby" harry grumbled 

"Tell us about your son" Sara said interrupting Harry and picking up on her nerves 

"His name is Alexander, he- uh he loves Volcanos and for some strange reason he prefers reality TV to cartoons he loves watching doctor phil" she smiled just thinking about ut "he likes cartoons too though he really likes the ninja turtles...umm" she chanced a glance up at them and found there soft gazes and looked away "...he uh thinks that butterflies come from blueberries and thats where the term 'butterflies in your stomach' when your nervous come from, he likes cheese and uh- sometimes he smiles in his sleep, he has freckles on his shoulders and once when we were at the park he laughed so loudly he scared away a flock of pigeons" she said fondly feeling the burn behind her eyes and willing thr tears away "hes all i have please don't take him away" she 

"...okay" Sara said seriously and turned back to Barry "you can do it but there your responsibility, you want them both here so badly you train her and they'll live with you on your floor"

Some people objected but they were ignored.

Barry nodded "of course"

Caitlin wanted to objected aswell because she didn't want to be a burden but something told her this wasn't the time so she stayed quite.

"There's no one else who could take care of him?" Oliver asked "are you sure you can't get in touch with the father?"

Caitlin worried her lower lip her stomach twisting into knots at the memories of him "he's in jail" 

Another heavy silence.

"Oh"

She let out a shaky breath "listen, I understand that its dangerous I really do he's my son I'm the most worried about this and I don't like the idea at all but if i lose my son because of this, if you keep me from my son I will do everything in power to get back to him weather I'm trained or not. he's all I have you can't keep me from him" she said as steadily as she could because she meant it

"Is that a threat Miss. Snow?" Harry asked sitting back in his seat, an almost amused look on his face.

She took a steadying breath and "If it was a threat" she began holding his gaze "surely I would have mentioned my probably deathly ice powers that i can't control and the fact I know how to make a biowepon" she let that hang there for a while "...Now are you going to keep me from my son or not?" she asked flatly her hands braced on the table

The doctor seemed to be in a stunned silence for a moment but she maintained eye contact and held her head high refusing to back down, it didn't matter how scared she was, she would do anything for Alex.

Sara actually smirked at her sort of threat "let's take a vote"

Barry actually looked a little smug and pressed a button on his phone and a hologram of balancing scales appeared in the middle of the table. 

She watched in fascination and anticipation as the scales tipped with every new vote.

"This boy" Harry began "you'd risk everything for him?"

"Of course, he's my son"

"But what about your soulmate?" Oliver asked glancing at Felicity 

Caitlin shrugged "as far as I'm aware I dont have one, they were supposed to be there when I arrived but instead I was kidnapped. Barry said I might have just missed them but either way they weren't there so…"

"Everyone has a soulmate" Felicity said "we'll help you find them"

"I dont think thats a good idea" she said tentatively "Barry told me I have powers because my soulmate does, it's bad enough I have powers I can't out my son in danger like that"

"We're not dangerous" Zari tried 

"Neither is a weapon, not on its own anyway" she traced a finger over the cuff "and that's what these powers are they're dangerous"

"Not if you learn to control them" barry said

"In science you learn that you can't control anything, You can control a flame until there's a draft and there is always a draft of a hurricane... Control is an illusion"

"We're still going to help you." Barry said confidently 

She ignored him "When can I see my son?"

He looked to Cisco "how much change do the cuffs have left?"

Cisco tapped his smart watch a few times "42% we can charge them while we get the sepher of Doom ready"

"Sepher of doom?" Caitlin echoed 

"It's just a name" Barry assured her 

but that didn't make her feel any better. "Umm" he glanced around where everyone was looking wary "you'll need to take them off… do you think tou can do that without any- frostyness?"

"Yeah" she said shakily "I- I dont feel what I felt before when I…" Her stomach twisted with anxiety but she thought about her son and stayed calm. She pressed the release button on the cuffs and she was pretty sure everyone was holding their breath. She glanced up when the second one came off and she placed them on the table. Thankfully all was well, there was no pricking in her finger tips or cold growing under her skin.

"It's alright" she assured them lacing her fingers together "it's fine guys really. I feel fine… you believe me right?"

They all looked uneasy and she wrapped her arms around herself and glanced around nervously. "I'm sorry" she said quietly "its- you shouldn't have to deal with all of this" she stared out the window 

"Its okay" Cisco assured her "this is what we do"

"Not like this" she shook her head "God my life is a mess" she felt her fingers prickle with the cold power and wrung her hands together.

"Barry," Oliver said in a warning tone. "Your responsibility" 

"I know. I know. Just give her a second" Barry watched her pace for a few moments. "Why did you name your son Alex?" He asked trying to distract her

"What? Oh- um" she shook her head "its short for Alexander" she blew out a breath "he- just… I liked the name" she looked down her hands that were frosting over "I really love my son, I love him so much it hurts. I just want to hold him" her voice broke 

"I know" he soothed "uh do you mind if touch you?" He asked stepping closer to her 

She nodded absently and he placed a hand on her shoulder "deep breath. Come on. Just like before"

Barry could feel her shaking, he knew why she was scared but he didn't have to be and he didn't know how to help her.

"I don't want this to be real"

"I know" he looked back at everyone else "can you leave us?"

Wordlessly they all left Cisco and Felicity hovered by the door for a few moments but eventually they did leave too. 

"I know its all too much" he began "this is a new place, your separated from your son and your soulmate it can't be easy. I don't expect you to be fine. Nobody does. We're getting Alex back today but for us to be able to leave you need to calm down we can't have an outburst of your powers on the way, you need to stay calm" He met her brown eyes and she held his gaze for a fraction before quickly looking away.

He looked down at her hands where the frost had all but he dropped his hand from her shoulder and the last bits vanished to. 

"I'm sorry"

"Don't apologise for things you can't control" he gestured to her hands "may I?"

"Uh- um yes"

Tentatively barry took her hands in his "your not cold to touch. Do you feel cold?"

"No" she said awkwardly 

"That's fascinating" he marveled "I thought you'd feel cold"

"Well you don't feel fast" she blurted "I mean- to be able to go as fast as you do without falling apart. I figured your body wouldve changed to compensate, you know? Maybe your body would be constantly vibrating or your skin would be less dense…" she trailed off then shook her head to herself "never mind"

"No your right we did some tests a few years ago that proved just that actually. I am vibrating all the time you just don't notice, although occasionally I do cause static shocks. So your right. You came to that conclusion pretty quickly, it took us a while"

A blush tainted her cheelaa and she shrugged Caitlin then pulled her hands away "your not going to experiment on me are you?"

"We're not going to anything without your consent" he promised "but that'll probably just be to the extent of taking blood and DNA samples nothing extensive, don't worry"

"Okay"

"Obviously we'll wait until you're settled before anything happens'' he checked the time "I need to go sort of time sepher so if its okay I'll leave you with Amaya and Zari. They can show you around and coach you through control techniques they're good at it. It'll only take about 2 hours 4 at most

She nodded, wrapping her arms around herself. She didnt want to be left alone with these strangers but she was in no place to argue.

"Any immediate questions?"

"Is it dangerous? Time travel, I know you said thr time like would be fine but are there any effects on the body,?"

He hesitated "it can be dangerous but don't worry we're not going back years and there's no chance we'll meet ourselves its minimum risk"

"And you've done this before?"

"Too many times that I can admit to" 

"...you said before about meta DNA going through the soul bond or whatever, there's no chance that Alex has this problem right?"

"You said he was nearly 3?"

"Yes"

"The explosion was 5 years ago" he rubbed the back of his neck "I guess maybe there's a really really small chance but it's highly unlikely. I don't know I'm not a geneticist, if you really want that answered we'll have to run his DNA" 

She bit her lip "okay"

"Anything else?"

"No" she had a lot of questions but right now she couldn't get them all out and what she really wanted was right now was her son and the fastest way for that to happen was if Barry started working on the sepehr of doom as soon as possible. 

Meeting Amaya and Zari wasn't as bad as she thought and while she still felt uneasy leaving Barry's side since she'd developed a strange attachment to him but the 2 women were nice. Amaya was a soft spoken woman but it was obvious she was powerful. Zari held herself with the same power but she was much more laid back and easy going.

The building was huge. And in Catlins opinion a little extravagant. It consisted if 35 floors and an underground parking garage, The first floors were training rooms, there was a swimming pool and a hot tub, then there were 4 floors for the gym it had every sort of equipment and one room was just for weights. The next floor was the speed lab which was made for Barry but it was used for training sometimes to. Then to her delight there were 6 floors for labs and research development, then there was the casual areas, lounge and entertainment centers and some floors for storage.

The top floors were apartments the people who lived there permanently had their own floors people like Barry, Cisco+Cynthia, Sara+Ava, Ray, Zari+Nate.

Then there were the apartments for the people who just came and went like Mick, Cecil, Thea, Roy, Dr. Wells, Dr. Stein, Ronnie and Laurel there were a lot of people to remember. 

Finally Oliver and Felicity had the penthouse because they paid for everything.

It seemed like a nice place. 

"You and your kid will probably be staying with Barry, he has a great apartment and a lot of space so he doesn't break anything while he's running about, you'll love it"

"I don't want cause any more trouble" Caitlin said wearily

"You won't be. Barry wants you here, he took full responsibility, you heard him and like I said his apartment is huge" Zari gushed 

"If your uncomfortable maybe you could sleep in one of the spare rooms but- I wouldn't recommend it with thr odd hours everyone keeps, especially with a toddler it'll be safe don't get me wrong but, you won't get much rest" Amaya explained

"Barry has like 3 guest rooms" Zari commented around a bite of doughnut. "He's such a great guy, he always has food" 

Caitlin nodded idally "he seems nice" 

"He is. He's the sort of cliche goody two shoes super hero you see in comics. And he's single" zari wiggled her eyebrows at caitlin and she pulled a face, this was no time for dating.

"He's waiting for his soulmate" Amaya cut in

"I know I was just saying, at least you won't have to deal with girlfriends hanging about." Zari played it off easily 

She just nodded along silently agreeing that it would be best if she didn't want strangers hanging about it was bad enough she had to leave her home.

She did some breathing exercises with Amaya and Zari in a smaller training room that was set for yoga and meditation. They didn't really help because she was too on edge but it was a way to burn time until Barry was ready.

When Barry arrived it was with Cisco and Ray who both looked a mixture of excitement and wariness over the whole situation. Cisco passed her the cuffs which were thinner than the last ones and easily hid under her sleeves. 

Ray handed her a blister with 2 pills inside "this is to combat the nausea, take one before every trip" he handed her a small pill bottle "and this is for your son, the blue one is for the nausea it can be dissolved into a drink and the white one is a tranquilizer" 

"You want be to drug my son?" She asked flatley.

"I told you she wouldn't take it well" cisco murmured 

"My 2 year old son" she continued 

"Exactly he's 2, this could be traumatic for him it's better for him to go to sleep, you won't be able to explain this"

"I don't want to"

"Just take it anyway," he said, pushing the bottle into her hand.

She reared back at the contact holding her hands to her chest. Barry was suddenly by her side then taking the pills from Ray "ready to go?" 

"More than ready"

Xx

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this was a longer chapter like I said, I just want to get to all the fluff with Alex. I hope you enjoyed it.


	3. The one where Barry meets Alex

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the title says. 
> 
> Please check out the authors notes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I've written some of Alex's speech using phonetic spelling, I have done this because he is 2 years old, I'm studying child language development in college and I don't like it when young child characters are written with perfect speech and sentences because children don't talk like that, they don't know how to. I will be doing this throughout this story for Alex's character but don't worry I've written it in a way that's easy to understand, if not tell me. 
> 
> If you have any questions about this please ask.

Time travel was weird. She was currently strapped into a sphere wearing ridiculous overalls and a helmet the 2 seats opposite her were empty along with the one next to her that had been fitted for a car seat. 

"Ready?" Cisco asked tapping at the tablet he was holding

"Umm- as I'll ever be" she said nervously 

Barry stood besides the sepher wearing his red suit. "It'll be fine" 

Cisco opened a breech for them and they went through. Blues and greys mixing together everything both simultaneously dark and light at the same time until they came out on the other other side.

"Is this your earth?" Cisco asked to confirm, they were on the outskirts of the city but she could see the tell tale skyline and the woodland trail with graffiti on the nature trail sign despite the dark.

"This is it" her heart leaped at the thought of being closer to her son

Barry nodded to her and she tightened her grip on the seat and so it began.

When everything started moving she had to close her eyes. This was so weird. It made her dizzy and she couldn't help but worry if Barry was dizzy too.

Everything happened really fast. Well obviously that's what Barry was known for. Fast was probably the wrong word, it was more like a rush, like being on a roller coaster except much more intense and the entire time she felt upside down. It didn't last more than 10 seconds she counted and soon enough Barry was opening the door and it was only then she realised she had been holding her breath the whole time.

The speedster made quick work of unbuckling her "see that wasn't so bad" 

She opened her eyes and blew out the breath she was holding it turned in to a high pitched hysterical laugh "that was-" she shook her head "that was not nice"

He huffed "yeah I hear it takes a while to get used to" he helped her out mindful of how wobbly she was. "You've done well, you haven't thrown up…. Uh-do you think you're going to?"

"...no?" 

"Good. Is your house far?" He asked looking around they were outside the nature trail like before but the sky was darker.

"No, it's not far from here"

He looked relieved "okay. Do you mind if we walk then? I'm tired I need like a billion calories"

"That makes sense. There's food at home"

It took 10 minutes to get there and Caitlin all but rocketed up the stairs to her apartment when she burst in she startled the babysitter.

"Mummy!" Alex exclaimed, running to her his arms outstretched.

Caitlin fell to her knees and embraced him her hands trembling "oh my baby" she said breathlessly "your okay?" She pulled back to look at him, tracing shaking fingers across his cheeks "I love you so much" she held him tightly, rocking him back and forth making him giggle. She pulled away slightly to study his face and laughed tears of relief when he looked the same. He was in the same footie spiderman pajamas she had left him in, same messy hair, the same slight stain on his collar from the yoghurt she had fed him before leaving him with the babysitter.

Time travel was real. 

"Why sad mummy? Why sad?" He asked poking her cheek 

"I'm not sad baby" she said grabbing his small hand and kissing his fingers "I just missed you that's all"

The babysitter- Claire shifted awkwardly and that caught her attention she wiped her eyes and looked at the confused teenager. 

"Oh I'm sorry. I know I'm very early"

"You've only been gone 40 minutes" she said with a frown she eyed Barry "is everything okay?

"There was a change of plans, everythings fine" Caitlin handed her the babysitting money "thankyou for watching him, I'm sorry for the inconvenience"

"No problem" she said stepping out past Barry 

Caitlin looked at Barry only just remembering he was there, she picked Alex up not ready to let go of him and she probably wouldn't be for a while. The little boy buried his face in the crook of her neck wary of the stranger.

"This is Barry" Caitlin introduced gently running her fingers through his brown hair. "Can you say hi?" She asked "He's mummys friend" Alex's interest was piqued at that and he turned his head slightly to look at the stranger.

Barry smiled at the child taking a step closer.

"Hey there, I like your pajamas. Who is that? web man" He said in the soft voice people used on children.

"It- a- umm es'pider" 

"Wow spider man" Barry said gasping dramatically "I love spider man" 

Alex eyes him sceptically and cocked his head curiously his grip on his mother loosening just a little "I yikes es'pider man too"

"You do? I'm sure you can tell me all about him"

Alex grinned and dropped his head to his mothers shoulder again. They walked through to the kitchen and Caitlin set Alex on her hip while she put some frozen pizzas and curly fries in the oven for Barry, along with some chicken nuggets in dinosaur shapes. They might as well eat the freezer stuff, if she was going away- well essentially and literally dropping off the face of this earth for a few months so her apartment would probably be sold along with her stuff, she would have to ask her friends to put her things in storage until she returned. Her stomach sank at the thought of how much stress this would cause her friends but she had to do this for herself and for Alex. 

She couldn't risk hurting him. She touched the cuff under her sleeve anxiously and Alex yawned.

"Are you feeling sleepy?"

"Nuh uh" 

"Alright" she said knowingly and pressed a kiss to his temple and set him on the kitchen island she held him so he wouldn't fall "listen we're going away for a little bit, for a sleepover" she explained simply

"Sleeped over?" Alex repeated 

"That's right. You're going to meet a lot of new people and we're going to see a lot of new things, how does that sound? Does it sound fun?" 

He nodded looking ready to fall asleep.

"Okay, we need to go pack now because we'll be in this new place for a while. So you need to tell me what toys you want," He nodded, blearily rubbing his eyes. She turned to Barry "How long do we have?"

He glanced at the clock "according to the news report the police find your car in 20 minutes and then once they've gone over all the evidence and are able to identify the owner they'll come here, so about an hour maybe"

An hour. She had an hour to pick up her life.

In her room she settled Alex on the bed and gathered everything she would need into 2 big suitcases and a duffle bag. She packed clothes, 3 pairs of shoes, toiletries, little trinkets she couldn't live without and the box of photos she kept on top of her wardrobe. 

She didn't need much. It was packing for Alex that was harder, she packed pull ups, loads of clothes including stuff he had yet to grow into, little shoes, coats, blankets, most of his favourite toys, his sippy cup and most importantly his comfy. The world would fall apart if her son lost the small blanket he had since he was born. 

She made sure to pack the baby monitor too, and a bunch of USB sticks with her work on just in case. 

By the time she was finished she felt like crying at the bareness of it all. Alex had fallen asleep on her bed, his legs tucked up to his chest and an adorable sleepy smile on his face.

Now all that was left to do was email Harrison and hope that he could put everything in storage for her.

There was a soft knock on the open door, she turned to see Barry casually leaning against the door frame "almost ready?"

She nodded, folding one of Alex's onesies "almost… is there anything I have to bring?"

"Just what you think you'll both miss we can get you anything you need from my earth, but oh uh- bank details and paperwork, forms of ID we don't do it on my earth but there is an earth that controls most banking for cases like yours. People move Earths more often than you would think, this way you'll have money that can be used on my earth or any earth under the multiversal bank"

She hadn't expected that and it did put a lot of her money worries aside "That's convenient"

"So convent" he agreed "once Cisco and I went undercover for a month on earth 2 to stalk Harry because he was being shady- it turns out he had a daughter we didn't know about, you'll love her"

She nodded absently standing on her tiptoes to get the box from the top of her wardrobe, the one with all her important information for her and Alex's birth certificates.

She double checked they were in there before she packed that box too.

"Okay. I-I think that's it…" she picked Alex up carefully and he fussed slightly at the movement "its okay its just mummy" she soothed and he fell back to sleep. She shouldered the duffle bag and grabbed one of the suitcases and she was trying to figure out how she was going to carry everything when Barry shook his head and took the other suitcase and gestured for her to give him the duffle bag "you have more important priorities"

She let him carry all the bags outside then she took one of the suitcases from him as they walked back to where Barry had left the sphere of doom after throwing a cloaking sheet over it.

"Did you give him the motion pill?"

She nodded numbly "I dessoved it in his milk"

"Did you give him the sleeping pill?"

"No, it's past his bedtime so he fell asleep anyway"

"Do you think he'll sleep through it?" Barry asked wearily, it would no doubt be traumatic if he woke up in the middle of time travel.

Caitlin huffed "he sleeps through anything"

"Did you take the motion pill?" 

"Yes… are you still hungry?" 

"No, well- I'm always hungry but I'm fine"

She nodded worriedly, biting her lip in concern because their safety rested solely on Barry.

"If you're still hungry we can stop for food. Don't you need recovery time or something? What if all the running makes you sick?"

"Hey, hey it's fine" he assured her "my metabolism is different now and I don't get motion sickness since I do this everyday, not to the extent of time travel but I'll be okay I promise. Don't you trust me?"

"No" she responded, "not with him," she said, rubbing Alex's back. "If something goes wrong-"

"It won't"

She nodded mutely.

When they reached the sphere they strapped Alex in first and triple checked to make sure he was secure, he was still sleeping soundly and she really hoped he would stay that way. 

Barry checked that she was strapped in securely too and gave her a reassuring smile "it's all going to be Okay Caitlin" his eyes lingered on alex "I won't let anything happen"

A few moments later everything was rushing again and she counted to 12 this time all the while squeezing her eyes closed and praying her son would be okay. 

When it all stopped again she looked over at Alex and couldn't help but laugh because her baby was still asleep. She let out a sigh of relief and suddenly Barry was there unbuckling them.

"Okay?" He asked 

She nodded and kneeled in front of Alex and lifted him out of the seat.

"How did he sleep through that?" He asked amazed 

Caitlin shrugged, pressing a kiss to Alex's temple and settling him against her chest "I don't know but thank God he did" 

Barry nodded his agreement and helped her out the sepher Cisco and Ray were sitting in fold out chairs and eating doritos when they saw Barry Cisco tossed him the bag of chips.

"Your like 5 hours out but at least you're all still in one piece" he praised clapping Barry on the shoulder "man did you know this earth doesn't have  _ michael perry?  _ It's madness"

"Micheal perry?" Caitlin asked 

"He's this science comedian, it's better than it sounds" Barry supplied

"This is your son?" Cisco asked quietly so he didn't wake the toddler 

"Yes" she confirmed 

"He's cute"

"Thanks"

"Any problems?" Ray asked anxiously, he eyed the toddler in her arms like the child would explode.

"No. It all went fine. Thank God" Barry said relieved

"That's great. I know everyone is waiting to hear how it went, we were a little worried when we passed the 4 hour mark"

"Sorry" Barry apologised "I didn't want to get it to close, I was aiming for 20 minutes"

"Its cool. At least you're all safe. You'll all need a check up when we get back though" Ray gave her an apologetic look "the tranquilizer really was for the best"

"Oh I didn't give him it, he's just regularly sleeping" she said handing Ray the pill bottle with the tranquilizer back in

"Your kid sleeps through time travel?" Cisco marveld 

"He sleeps through everything, although I should probably wake him up make sure he's not concussed"

"Wait until we go through the breach, this can be trippy" Cisco warned as he put his goggles on. 

When they arrived in the middle of the lounge, Oliver, Felicity and doctor Stein were waiting for them. 

"Is everyone okay?" Felicity asked urgently 

"Yeah we're all fine, it went okay" Barry confirmed with a tiered smile

"...Alex baby" she said running her fingers through his hair "come on it's time to wake up, you can go back to sleep soon"

Alex grumbled but opened his eyes "Mummy" 

"Yeah sweetheart, hi" she cooed pushing his hair out of his eyes "you need to meet some new people for me okay?" 

Alex shook his head turning into her shoulder.

"He's shy" she apologised "especially when he's tired" she sighed at the thought of trying to bridge this time travel gap, when they had left there earth it had been just before 8pm now they were back in Barrys universe or earth- 1 as he called it, it was 1pm. Her son had missed a night of sleep hopefully after his check up he would have a nap so he wasn't so tired she would let him run around for a couple hours to tire him out then put him to bed a little later and hopefully that would make things better.

"Hey buddy" Barry prompted "Hi" he smiled gently "did you have a nice nap?" 

He blinked blearily "I naps now mummy"

"You can't go back to sleep yet baby" she tried to set him down on the floor but he clung to her and made noises of protest. "Okay okay" she adjusted him on her hip "just don't go back to sleep"

"If you follow me" Dr. Stein said gesturing to the lift "let's get this little guy checked out" he bopped Alex's noise and he started crying "Oh I- sorry my grandson-"

"It's okay. Like I said he doesn't like strangers'' she ran her fingers through the hair at the back of his head "shhh, it's alright"

"So sorry" he apologised again

"Don't worry about it. He gets cranky when he's tired"

In the medical room or what Cisco referred to ominously as  _ The Med Bay _ Caitlin was instructed to sit on the bed along with Barry sitting in the chair opposite where he was instantly hooked up to an IV bag and given a burger.

Alex finally let her put him down and he quickly started asking questions "where this mummy?" He asked

"Well we're in a different place but its a bit the same… its hard to explain. Right now we're in a building in a cit- central city but not  _ our  _ central city" She hesitated then looked around thr room then her eyes landed on a notepad and pen "can I borrow this?" she asked, gesturing to it.

"Of course" Stein said easily 

"You see the world is a lot bigger than mummy thought it was, there are more people than mummy thought could ever possibly exist" she explained it like a story and Barry sat back to listen.

Caitlin drew 22 circles of different sizes on the paper and put lines next to them "you see these? These are planets. Do you know what they are?"

"Mars" 

"That's right" she said nodding and pointing to a circle she had shaded in "well this is our home do you remember what our planet's name is?"

"Earf"

"Yes, we live on earth" she said proudly still amazed at her sons smarts "well all these planets are earth as well, but you see these lines here?"Alex nodded seriously "well these are walls but they are invisible we can't see them but they are still there and this means we can't see the other earths and we can't talk to them, they've always been there we just didn't know"

"Why?" Alex asked tilting his head

"Because there invisible to us but like I said there are different people on different earths and some of these people are special and that means they can see and even visit different worlds" she said drawing an arrow between 2 earths "mummy accidentally fell through a magic hole"

"Falled over? You hurt mummy? You bleeding?" she looked up at the small huff of a laugh that escaped Barry. She smiled slightly then then focused back on Alex.

"No, I'm okay but something happened when I got here, remember when I told you about special people?"

"Yep" he nodded "

"Well it made me a special person and now I can do special things like- sort of like magic"

Alex blinked "magic"

"Something like that" she agreed "so we need to stay here so i can practice how to do this magic"

Alex nodded "Okay"

Caitlin was a little taken aback she thought there would be more questions but he just seemed to accept that his mother now had magic powers.

She smiled and kissed the crown of his head "I love you"

"I y'uve you"

"Okay let's see shall we" Doctor Stein began "can I have a listen?" He asked gesturing to Alex's chest and putting the stethoscope ends in his ears

"Mummy has that" he said reaching out to touch to tug the cable

"Does she now?" Stein enquired raising an eyebrow at Caitlin

"Uh huh- mummy's doc-ter"

"Not that sort of doctor honey" she said gently 

Stein gave her a questioning look as he listened to Alex's heart beat then his breathing "I went to medical school, I did biochemistry mainly, biology with a focus on cell biology and genetics, I dabbled dabbled in midwifery and pedatics for a while and a I did a semester in forensics"

"That's a lot" Barry said, impressed "so when you threatened the bioweapon…"

"Yeah I can really do that" she flushed "-uh sorry about that I dont think id actually..."

"Wow" Barry said awed 

"I never actually got my degrees though" she admitted "I got pregnant in my last year and I wasn't able to graduated"

"That sucks"

"I wouldn't change anything" she said looking to Alex with a sad smile

"Of course" 

"How did you manage to study all of that?"

"I-uh I have a photographic memory"

"Ah that makes 5 of us then" 

"5?" She said surprised 

"Myself, Barry, Ray and Felicity I suppose you could count Cisco although he's very selective he can tell you all about the 'motherboard of the month' however he can't tell you what he had for breakfast so there's 6 of us now I suppose"

"7" she said nodding to alex "I think, I'll get him tested when he starts school, but he knows an awful lot about volcanoes" 

"Is that right?" Barry curiously asked "okay alex tell me something about volcanos?"

Alex beamed "vol-canos are umm made from- mag-mag-uhmum"

"Magama sweetie" Caitlin corrected 

"Yes. Vol-canos go boom! When um- maguama es-scapes. There are 3 diff-ertt sorts of volc-ano"

"Wow, that's so interesting" Barry praised

"Ands bwary- I yikes vol-canos"

"Me too" Barry agreed

"Mummy bwary yikes vol-cano" Alex stage whispered

"I heard. And its  _ Barry _ " she said, putting emphasis on the AR sound.

"B'arey"

"Ba-rry"

"Buwary"

"B-a-rr-y"

"Bu-arey" 

"Barry"

"Bw'arey"

"That's close enough kid" Barry said amused

"Okay I need to check your eyes now young man, I'm just going to shine this light in your eyes so I need you to look at your mum, can you do that?"

Alex nodded obediently and did as he was told looking at his mother and grinning widely "your doing so good" Caitlin praised.

"And now look at the door" Stein instructed 

Alex squeezed his eyes closed and shook his head "i donts yike it" he whined and grabbed onto caitlins sleeve "I see shapes"

"It's normal, you don't have to be scared" alex shook his head and burried himself in her side and she got the message. 

"That's enough for now" Caitlin told the doctor apologetically, she pulled Alex closer to her "he's tired and your a stranger" she rested her chin atop of Alex's head "I don't want to stress him out with everything going on, sorry"

"It's no problem. He seems healthy anyway way although I want to take a blood sample at some point to be sure"

Caitlin cringed remembering what happened the last time her son had his shots "yeah…. Umm I'll have to think about that"

"I have a grandson, he's 18 months. He's not too fond of needles either"

Casitlin laughed awkwardly "Alex  _ really  _ hates shots" 

"Ah. Well I'm hoping to take some of your blood to"

Caitlin hesitated and looked to Barry who nodded reassuringly "maybe not today, it's been a long few weeks for you and you just got Alex back" he stood (mindful of the IV) and came to sit next to her and Alex "just think about it, we'll get you both settled first and then we'll go from there. Sound good?"

"Yes" 

"Alright" he tapped Alex on the shoulder. "You did good" 

The little boy smiled sleepily at that moment Sara walked in along with Ray. "We just wanted to check in, see how things are going down here"

"Alex seems perfectly healthy as does Barry I've just got to finish up with Caitlin here"

Sara nodded and tilted her head at the green eyes peeking at her "Hi, there Alex is it?"

He nodded against his mothers chest.

"My name is Sara, I'm a friend of your mums"

"Em-not mummy's friend" he mumbled 

"Alex can you say hi to Sara?" Caitlin said ignoring his last comment 

"Hi" he said raising his head his hair sticking up at the side 

"Wow'' Sara breathed looking between Barry and Alex "I mean- he's adorable. You look alike" Sara shot Barry a look hoping he would catch on. 

Alex was the image of Barry. 

He looked just like him with those green-hazel eyes, the same nose and messy brown hair except Alex had a few streaks of golden-blonde in there that he was sure to grow out of, there skin tone was the same he even had the mole under his left eye. He could be Barry's son, it was scary really. That's not to say he didn't look like his mother, Alex had Caitlin's round face and full lips he even mirrored her frown but the comparisons to Barry stood out more to her

"Oh, you think?" Caitlin asked

"Yeah…" Sara drew out looking at Martin and he met her eyes, his eyebrows raising slightly in acknowledgement, silently agreeing with her observations. "How are you feeling?" Caitlin looked down at her son and smiled 

"Better" she said nodding "a lot better"

"That's good, umm you're not  _ cold _ or anything?" she said eyeing the hands that were rubbing up and down her toddler sons back

"I'm fine" she assured her "I promise"

Sara searched her eyes for a moment before she turned back to Barry. She murmured something to him and they left the room. 

Doctor Stein put a blood pressure cuff on her arm and a scanner on her finger and took her vitals.

"How are you feeling? Really? There's no nausea or dizziness? These things usually come along with emerging powers, I remember"

Caitlin thought about it, she had been feeling unwell earlier but she chalked it down to missing her son and panicking over this entire situation.

"Umm maybe I've been a bit nauseous" she admitted 

He nodded sympathetically "are you on any medication?" 

"Umm" she fidgeted "I take zipiclone sometimes, it's prescribed" she explained

"Sleeping pills?" He asked to confirm 

"Yes" she said quietly

He nodded jotting that down on his notepad "do you suffer from insomnia?"

"On occasion" 

"And is there a reason for this? I don't mean to pry but most people here have there mental health problems, depression, PTSD…" she looked up at him at that and he nodded without a word and jotted that down to "are you in therapy?"

"No"

"Do you need therapy?"

"No" she said with a little extra bite to the words

The doctor jotted something else down "if you change your mind we have a therapist on call, it's all confidential and completely private, she signed an NDA and everything"

"Thank-you but like I said I'm okay"

Barry walked back in then with Sara still dragging the IV behind him "are you done?"

"I just want to listen to her heart and breathing, just to be safe" he gestured to Alex "however we've reached an obstacle"

Barry crouched down so he was at Alex's eye level "hey" he began looking at Caitlin who nodded slightly in understanding "do you want to come and sit with me for a minute? The doctor just needs to listen to your mums heart like he did to you earlier do you remember? But to do that you can't sit on mummys knee, but you can come sit with me"

Alex considered him for a moment and bit his lip in the same way Caitlin did before he shook his head "no, stay with mummy"

"She'll still be right here" he assured him "you'll be able to see her"

"No" he grumbled, tightening his grip.

"Sweetie go sit with Barry its okay" she prompted but her son shook his head again refusing.

She met Barry's eye and he shrugged not knowing what to do, they had both come to the silent conclusion that they couldn't force Alex from his mother, he was in a new place with new people and if they were going to be living with Barry they would be seeing a lot of him so it was important Alex trusted him.

An idea occurred to Caitlin and she reached for her bag pulling Alex's favourite stuffed animal out.

"You know it's so strange that you don't want to sit with Barry" she said in mock thoughtfulness which captured Alex's attention

"Why? Mummy why I no want to sit with bw'arey?" He asked confused like he didn't quite understand what she had said 

"Well I was just talking to Meerrrphy and he told me how much he liked Barry"

Alex pulled away from Caitlins chest and eyes the plush sheep they had punningly named  _ 'meerrrphy' _ when he was a baby. Meerrrphy was Alex's comfort thing and where he went Meerrrphy went and where Meerrrphy went Alex went, that included the time Alex threw a tantrum in front of the washing machine for half an hour because he thought she was making his comfy swim without him.

"Meerrphy likes Bw'arey?" He asked sceptically 

"Oh yeah" Caitlin said nodding seriously and handing Barry the plush sheep "there friends, isn't that right Barry?"

"Oh yeah" Barry agreed nodding dramatically and studying the clearly well loved sheep, "me and Meerrrphy go way back, like a whole 5 seconds which is like- 20 years in fake sheep time"

Caitlin smiled at that and she heard Martin Stein stifle a chuckle "so are you going to sit with Barry and Meerrphy?"

Alex looked between the two of them for a moment before his eyes settled on Meerrrphy and he nodded climbing off his mother's lap, Barry stood to his full height again and lifted him up with the arm without the IV in and set him on the bench between him and Caitlin but Alex seemed to have other ideas as he climbed into his lap.

"Sorry" Caitlin said apologetically "he gets clingy when he's tired"

"It's alright" Barry booped Alex's nose against Meerrrphys making the little boy giggle and hug the toy to his chest, it was then he took a keen interest in the IV in Barrys arm

"What this?" He asked poking at the cord and reaching to grab it 

"Oh- no don't touch that" Barry said stopping his hand before he could touch it, "its special medicine that goes into my arm here look" he said gesturing to the inside of his left elbow.

"poorely Barwy?"

"No not exactly" he tried to explain "sometimes I just get really hungry and thirsty so I need to use a few of these special bags so I can eat even when I'm sleeping"

"Hurtting ?" He asked inquisitively

"A little when the needle first went in" Alex's eyes widened and he stared at the tube shying away from the IV line 

"Needle"

Barry quickly distracted him with Meerrrphy and Alex settled down again and watched doctor Stein listen to Caitlin's heart.

"What's wrong?" She asked nervously

"Oh um" the doctor removed the stethoscope from her chest and took the buds from his ears "it could just be nothing"

"What is it?" She asked calmly 

"Your heart its- its beating very fast" 

"Well that normal I'm stressed and-"

"No no I took that into account your heart- it's beating very fast like imagine you've just ran a marathon but a little- uh extra than that"

On instinct her hand came up to feel her heart rate and they all waited with bated breath, Alex not understanding what was going on put a hand over his heart copying his mother "that's not possible, I should be going into organ failure or… dead"

"We thought so too when we first witnessed this phenomenon" the doctor explained looking to Barry "may I?" He asked gesturing to Barrys chest

"Sure" Barry shifted Alex so he was sideways across his lap

Martin pressed the end of the stethoscope over Barry's heart then gestured for Caitlin to come listen, Caitlin hesiated "do you mind?"

Barry huffed "I'm used to being the medical marvel of the group, go ahead"

"What doing mummy? What doing?"

"I'm listening to Barry's heart" she said putting the buds in her ears 

"Why?"

"So I can understand what doctor Stein is talking about" she said pressing the cool instrument over Barry's heart.  _ Thrumpthumpthurmpthrumpthurmpthurmthurmpthrumpthrumpthurmp  _ the sound thundered in her ears there was no pause between beats- that she noticed and it was never ending.

She pulled the stephascope away amazed then listened again  _ Thrumpthumpthurmpthru- _

She shook her head to herself in disbelief making Barry smirk "I know"

"B-but how you should be-"

"Chopped up in jars in someone's lab. I know"

"-Dead"

Barry shrugged "yeah that to"

"I don't understand"

"Yeah its pretty trippy" he said nonchalantly "but I am alive, obviously and so are you"

"Oh right" she put the stethoscope over her own heart and listened  _ thrumpthrump thrumpthrump thrumpthurmp thrumpthrump  _ and sure enough her heart was racing, not as fast as Barrys but it was still far to fast and she could hear the pause if she really concentrated but it was too much. "Wow" she breathed 

"I listen pwease" Alex piped up making grabby hands towards the stethoscope

"Um- just for a moment" she slotted the buds in his small ears then pressed the globe to her own heart and watched her son's eyes widen and he smiled "tis fast mummy"

"Yeah" she moved the end away from her chest and Alex looked to barry

"Barry now"

"Sweetie Barry needs to rest-" Caitlin objected

"Oh no it's fine" Barry said casually "like I said before, I'm used to it"

"If your sure-"

"I'm sure" he took the end from her and gestured for Alex to come closer, the small boy climbed into his lap again and Barry helped him guide the end of the stethoscope to his chest. 

Alex look startled at first but then he giggled "it's like train"

"A train huh? That's a new one" Barry gently took the stethoscope from him and handed it back to the doctor.

"I'd look to run more tests" stein said 

"Oh um I don't- uh-"

"Just leave her alone today okay?" Barry cut in "she just got Alex back and this is a very stressful situation, so just leave them alone for today okay? They both need rest, we can talk about this tomorrow though" he looked to Caitlin "you okay with that? Just talking"

She nodded and reached for Alex taking him from Barry, her son buried his face against her chest grumbling something.

"Shhh it's alright. I know" she adjusted him in her arms

"Let's get you to bed huh?" Barry stood taking the IV from his arm "I have a guest room" 

Barry thanked doctor Stein then led them to the elevator "where going?" Alex asked sleepily when Barry pressed a button and the elevator doors closed

"My apartment"

"Why?"

"Because I'm going to be taking care of you and your mum for a while"

"Why?" 

"Because it's the right thing to do"

"Why?"

"Do you know anything about situational ethics?"

"No"

"Well then I'll tell you when your older" 

Barry caught caitlins small smile and he never thought he would be so happy to see another person happy.

The metals doors opened and Barry gestured dramatically "Welcome to my home. Do you want the tour now or after you've gotten some rest?" 

"I guess nows okay, if you don't mind"

Barry nodded and started to show them around "alright so this is the living room, the TVs there, the sofa folds out and the arm chairs recline" Caitlin eyed the expensive grey furniture appreciatively, she hadn't expected his apartment to be this nice, her favourite part though had to be the huge floor to ceiling glass windows that were in place of the wall that looked out over the city. It was beautiful.

Next he showed them to the kitchen which looked like something from a catalog, the dining room, the entertainment area, his office and then the bedrooms. 

"This is my room" he explained knocking lightly on the white door with 2 knuckles for emphasis. "If you need me and it's night time just wake me up I'm not a huge fan of sleep anyway" he led them further down the hall to the guest room "and this is the guest room you two can stay in here for now, sorry I don't have a room for Alex ready or anything" he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly "we can go shopping and get Alex his own bed and everything"

"Oh no that's okay, I'm sure we'll manage" 

"Nonsense. I want you both to feel comfortable here, Alex has his own room at home and I here children need routines"

"so-uh- um how long do you think we'll be here?"

Barry shrugged and offered her a sympathetic look "it's hard to say, 3 months at the least but you could be here for a year, maybe even 18 months"

Her eyes widened in alarm "Really? We have a life to get back to and-"

"I know. I know but it's better to be safe than sorry" he said settling his eyes on Alex "and who knows maybe you'll decide to stay, a lot of people do when they meet their soulmates and plus there are people like you here it's good to have a support system"

"We're not staying"

Barry shrugged "whatever you want, just do what makes you happy. That's all I want for both of you"

Caitlin noted that this sounded quite cult like. He was just being so nice, no one was nice without an ulterior motive and Barry was unbelievably nice.

"Well umm- thank you" she clutched Alex a little tighter 

"Your welcome" 

Barry walked into the guest room and she followed. The room was nice, it was clean and basic with a king sized bed grey/blue sheets and a picture of the beach on the wall. She noted that someone had brought her bags down here too. 

"There are extra blankets and pillows in the closet" he explained "and the bathrooms through there feel free to shower or whatever, I'm not sure if there is any soap in there but we can always get some. There are fresh towels in there too, if you need anything just ask Gideon or come find me you can ask Gideon where I am"

"Okay."

"I'll leave you two to it" he smiled at Alex who was half asleep on her shoulder.

Once Barry left closing the door behind him she released a breath she didn't know she was holding, she laid Alex down on the bed and went to one of her suitcases and dug out a pair of comfortable clothes to nap in. She brushed her hair and got a quick shower then fell asleep next to her son.

Xx

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please let me know what you think about my method of writing Alex's speech this will continue throughout the story.
> 
> Extra note- I think from now on the chapters will be about 4500-6000 words long depending on the chapter.


	4. The one where Barry gets to know Alex

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Destiny" Caitlin echoed "it must be nice here. Is santa claus real to?"
> 
> Barry huffed "no Santa's not real"
> 
> "Alexs is going to be disappointed"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning mentions of domestic abuse.
> 
> Again I made all the DNA stuff up.

"I'm telling you her kid looks exactly like Barry" Sara stressed 

"Exactly like Barry? Like her son could be his doppelganger?" Zari asked curiously 

"No, like he could be his son." Sara said her hands and arms flailing like it would help get her point across "It's freaky"

"What's freaky?" Barry asked walking into the shared lounge 

"How much Alex looks like you" Sara responded 

Barry frowned, taken aback "Caitlin's Alex?" 

"Yes Caitlin's Alex. Her son. He looks the double of you," sara stressed "like he's your clone, it's freaky"

"You think?" Barry wasn't convinced, "I mean he's got brown hair but at that age kids all look the same. I don't think we look a like at all"

"Are you blind?" Sara deadpanned unable to comprehend how Barry didn't see the obvious similarities.

"No, I just don't see the resemblance" he shrugged 

"Well I see it pretty fucking clearly" she said exasperated and began to pace her fingers itching at her sides for something to do. This was all too much surely Barry saw it, if not he was crazy or she was.

"Your going to have to stop swearing now there's a kid around" Barry said pointedly

Sara rolled her eyes but other than that she ignored what he had said "hey maybe your doppelganger is Alex's dad"

Barry pulled a face "she would've said something if I was and her earth is too different, we share 5% of the same people and Gideon would've told me if I had a doppelganger over there, hell- Caitlin wouldn't have to tell me she's freaking out over everything right now and I think if I looked like her ex whos in jail then we'd definitely know"

That made sense. "You just" Sara shook her head in awe "he looks so much like you"

"I don't see it"

"How's she doing?" Felicity asked walking into the room her eyes fixed on her tablet 

"Better. Having Alex back has really settled her"

"And her ice powers?" She asked glancing up

"There probably emotional like Cisco's were controlled by adrenalin at first, but since she's calmed down there's been no outbursts, I don't think she'll need the dampeners in a few weeks"

"That's great"

Barry nodded "she asked how long they'd be here for" 

"What did you tell her?" Sara asked

"The truth. That I don't know, it could be a couple of months it could be over a year"

"I don't like the idea of her going back, there" Felicity said on a sigh "it's not safe for either of them"

"It's not up to us." Barry didn't like it either, ideally she would choose to stay when she was fully in control again but she seemed adamant on returning to her heart where she's have no support system but again it wasn't up to him "If she's in control and confident with her powers we can't keep her here against her will but who knows maybe she'll want to stay"

"Maybe. I was looking into Caitlins earth. Its terrible crime is 10x what it is here. Global warming is killing the planet, devorce rates are 52%, women still aren't paid the same as men and for some reason Englands leaving Europe '' Felicity cringed "I wouldn't move back there. It's a shit show. Their much safer here"

"It's still her decision. I should get back to them anyway but um- thankyou Sara for sticking up for us earlier it- it means a lot" 

A smile tugged at the ex-assassins lips and she shrugged "there still your responsibility"

"I know"

***

Barry didn't have super hearing like kara but the apartment was a fairly new build and there was no carpet in the apartment (he scorched carpet with his speed) so he heard Caitlin moving things about in the bedroom, he heard her ensuite bathroom door open and close multiple times. The point was he knew she was awake, he knew she was restless.

He had been contemplating for the last 20 minutes whether or not he should go talk to her, he was sure she'd appreciated the check-in and now Alex was safe and sleeping they could have a much needed conversation about their plans for her here.

He knocked on her bedroom door lightly and within a few seconds it was open, Caitlin stood awkwardly in the doorway wearing a pair of leggings and an oversized purple shirt with a band logo he didn't recognise.

"Hi, I heard you moving about" that made him sound like a creep and he cringed internally but there was no saving it now "and uh-I figured you were awake"

"Oh, um yeah I'm awake but alex will sleep for another couple hours" 

Barry nodded for a stupid ammount of time as he tried to figure out what to say next. The reality of it was hitting him now, a woman and child would be living with him for the foreseeable future and while Caitlin seemed like lovely innocent mother who loved her son she also had possibly deadly ice powers and ice and speed and cold were opposites and he really knew nothing about this woman but nevertheless she and Alex were occupying his guest room.

"Uh- that's good, um can we talk?" He asked hesitantly, maybe she needed more time to herself? He wasn't sure, there was a hand book for what to do in this situation.

She looked back into the room at Alex, and her shoulders dropped like she wanted to say no but she looked back at him and nodded,Caitlin left the door open and with one more glance at her son she followed him into the living room. 

"We have a lot to talk about, and I assume you have questions"

"yes" 

"Well first things first I'm making lasagne for dinner, you and Alex like that don't you- wait do you have lasagne on your earth its pasta sheets and-

"We have lasagne on my earth" she assured him "but you didn't have to-"

"Well I'm not going to leave you to go hungry, I need to cook for myself anyway"

She nodded wordlessly but she still seemed uncomfortable. 

"So umm- what do you want to talk about?" 

"How are you doing?" 

"These are working" she said gesturing to the cuffs on her wrists "don't worry I'm not going to freeze anyone"

"That's not what i asked. How are you doing? How are you feeling? It's been a long day couple days for you, you've been dragged to another universe, kidnapped and got super powers within the week, you lost your son then got him back and the person who's supposed to make everything better- your soulmate isn't here there's a lot to work through there"

Caitlin winced hearing it all said allowed made it sound a lot worse than it was, sure she had been kidnapped but she hadn't been hurt at all and it was for less than a day, being away from Alex sucked but she had him back now and he didn't know the difference. Despite her flurry of emotions she nodded "yeah- I-I'm okay" 

"If that's true I'm worried" he said scinerly 

"I…" she looked down at her hands "I'm coping. This obviously isn't what I want but I can't change that. I have to stay calm for Alex"

"Of course. I understand that this is- well a lot. but it's okay to not be able to cope, it's great that you are but I know that it's not always that easy, I'm always here if you need to talk"

She nodded mutley 

"So umm you're okay to live here aren't you? It's only for a month or so, we can set you and Alex up in your own place but that'll take a while and we don't want to leave you on your own considering this is all new for you"

"Um- you don't mind us staying here?" She asked anxiously 

"No of course not, Alex is adorable and I don't know you yet but i want to and I'm sure your great and easy to live with"

"Toddlers are messy, loud and they have random things in their mouth for no reason, Alex cries and quotes movies at random I don't think-".

Barry's smiling at her, shaking his head and looking at her like she's the one who doesn't understand "its okay. Caitlin he's a child I understand. You know i have super powers i think that makes me a pretty great babysitter if he tries to eat something random i can get to him before that happens''

She frowned at him "you're sure?"

"Of course I'm sure" 

She falls silent her eyes still on her hands refusing to look at him for too long. He stifles a sigh and talks so she doesn't have to "there's no bills for you to pay or anything, oliver and Felicity own the building so you don't have to worry about that and i stock enough food for a family of 8 so you don't need to worry about food either. You have free reign of all the apartment including the kitchen, Your not expected to cook for me or anything your not a maid, but if your making food then I'll probably eat whatever"

She opened and closed her mouth curious to how he knew she was thinking just that, did Barry expect her to pat him back with choirs? Hunter had. She had only ever lived with a man once before and that had been awful. But she would do anything to keep Alex safe.

"okay" 

"And obviously if you make a mess clean it up, if you make a mistake you tell someone. If you mess up you ask for help. Your obviously entitled to your secretes but don't lie, we dont lie here it's not good for anyone"

"Okay" 

He offered her a small smile "I got you a phone" he said reaching for the box on the table, "it's got everyone's numbers and contact information in and there's some E-books on there too, you know like 'you have a soulmate what to do next' and 'it's a small multiverse after all'"

"Wow those titles are… something" 

Barry huffed "they get the point across. I'll take you to the soulmate offices sometime this week, you can get registered as a citizen of this earth and get your bank account and a bunch of legal things sorted out"

"I hate paperwork"

"That's okay, we can help with that too, Sara's sister is a lawyer. you have nothing to worry about. But do you have any worries or questions right now?"

"Why was i kidnapped?" She blurted a flush coming to her cheeks ``cisco said it was because my soulmate was one of you but I don't believe him"

Barry pursed his lips "well he wasn't lying, the truth is that there are people out there an anti social group of individuals who hate meta humans. We don't know who they are or what there goal is but they have advanced technology and are able to scan for breeches opening and well meta humans, they took you before you could get to your soulmate because they don't want more meta humans on this earth, and if you meet your soulmate you'll probably create baby meta humans and the group doesnt want that"

"I'm not having any more children" she said flatly 

"They don't know that" he said calmly "they took cisco for leverage and i think maybe that's why they took you to, we don't know who your soulmate is but that's not to say that they still couldn't hold you against us. We don't know who your soulmate is but that doesn't mean your not someones soulmate here and when someone's soulmate dies the remaining pair is never the same. So your the perfect hostage. You could be anyone's soulmate you could be one of the rebels or someone else's soulmate, we just don't know"

"So they took me because I could belong to anyone" she asked incredulously 

"No not belong to- you don't belong to anyone. It's more about belonging not being property" 

"...right"

"You don't believe me?"

"I just don't believe in soulmates" she said gently "its a nice idea having someone out there but I don't believe in that, soulmates aren't found there made" 

"Why can't it be both?"

"I-I don't know" Caitlin shrugged "if no ones perfect how can there be perfect couples?"

A smile tugged at Barry's lips. He enjoyed this debate with her, it was interesting to see what Caitlin thought processes were considering she was from a world without soulmates.

"I never mentioned perfection. No ones perfect and I have yet to see a literal perfect couple, I don't think soulmates are the perfect match at all, the there's a lot potential there"

"But what makes a couple soulmate? What makes the potential to be soulmates? What's the difference between my potential with Cisco or my potential with you? It doesn't make sense"

Barry sat back in his chair "I can't answer that because I really don't know… maybe you'll find an answer in one of those books but the only answer I can think to give you is destiny"

"Destiny" Caitlin echoed "it must be nice here. Is santa claus real to?"

Barry huffed "no Santa's not real"

"Alexs is going to be disappointed"

Barry chuckled "best we dont tell him"

"You have superheroes here though. He'll love that- he'll love you in your red spandex"

Barry rolled his eyes "I'm the flash" he corrected

Caitlin smiled but her smile dropped when she caught herself, this was serious no time for jokes and teasing it was up to this man what happened to her and Alex

"Right" she said in agreement 

"Alright, how about I start dinner? I can show you where everything is so you know for when your on your own"

Caitlin followed him into the kitchen, the last part of what he said on her mind on your own. Was she going to be left on her own? She was under the impression she would be under constant surveillance while she was here.

Barry showed her where everything was, where he kept the cutlery, the cups, the utensils and then the food and how the oven and microwave worked. It was all fairly the same to things on her earth the only difference being that this microwave could be controlled by Gideon, and the oven was double the size of hers and the hobs and the pans were connected so if the pan wasn't on the hob the hob wouldn't turn on. That made her feel better knowing Alex couldn't wander in here and play with the oven and hurt himself.

Not that he would. It was just her apartment that was toddler proofed. Barry's was not.

The fridge- freezer was huge and also controlled by Gideon and she sent an alert whenever someone left the fridge/ freezer door open or if anything needed to be restocked and there was a built in water and ice dispenser which Caitlin just knew alex would be obsessed with.

"Is there anything you don't eat?" Barry asked opening the cupboard

"Alex hates cabbage and I'm not exactly a fan of mushrooms" 

Barry nodded "alright, that's fine do you like pasta? I was thinking of making a pasta bake or something? will Alex eat that?"

"Yeah, he loves pasta"

"Thats good to know"

Alex woke up a little after food was cooked, green eyes blinking up at her in confusion when she asked him if he was ready for dinner. 

He had just woke up so he was expecting breakfast and he was almost confused to tears when Caitlin explained he had just had a long nap.

Food was a good distraction though and he calmed down when she set the plastic bowl in front of him.

Barry realised there was a lot he didn't know about children, the first thing that surprised him was how much they ate. Caitlin worked out his very small portion and chopped it up into smaller pieces for him. Thankfully she had brought plastic sippy cups with her so he could at least have some sense of normalcy during dinner but the only plastic bowl Barry had was a small red ome that had come in a cooking set, Although Caitlin said it was fine he still felt guilty for not being prepared, he didn't have a high chair either so caitlin had to sit him on her lap while also trying to eat her own food.

Alex didn't use cutlery properly, instead he would get some pasta on his fork and sometimes that fork would go into his mouth sideways or sometimes he would just take the food off the fork and shove it into his mouth. 

"I'll order some kids stuff later, but for things like clothes I think it'll be best if we go shopping"

"We can do that?" Caitlin said surprised 

"Of course," Barry gave her a concerned look hoping he hadn't lead her to believe she would be stuck here "maybe not this week but after you've had some basic training then of course, the cuffs work you just need to know what to do in the event they stop working, your not a prisoner here"

Alex perked up "I go shopping mummy? I wants ice cream"

"Ice cream huh? You know i have some in the freezer which you can if your mum says its okay?" Barry said looking to Caitlin 

Alex looked to her expectedly.

Caitlin hesitated "yeah. Okay sure- as long as you eat all your dinner"

Barry tried to engage Alex in a conversation about cartoons, the kid talked with his hands and exclamations about a characters he wasn't familiar with but he couldn't help but smile at Alex's excitement

After dinner Caitlin watched probably the biggest advantage of super speed come into play. Speed cleaning. She was jealous. 

To her surprise Alex didn't react at all he was too busy chattering away about ice cream to Merrphy. 

"Alright ice cream" barry said walking to the freezer at regular human speed "what does he like? I have plain vanilla, cookie dough, triple chocolate, raspberry swirl and peanut butter but i also have strawberry sherbet and frozen yoghurt"

"Wow. You have a lot of ice cream"

"I like to cover my basis. I need to eat so because i need the calories"

"Raspberry swirl is fine we don't want him climbing the walls...maybe let the calorised sink in before you speed clean" she muttered "you maybe fast but you should let your body process first…" she trailed off thoughtfully "do digest your food quicker than everyone else?"

Barry shrugged "I'm not sure"

"That'd be the first thing i'd check out, how do you know how much you need to eat verse how many calories you burn per speeding session?"

"Umm I just eat until i'm not hungry anymore"

"That's not at all helpful" 

Barry paused from filling the bowls with ice cream "l'll make a deal with you. You let me help you control your powers and I'll let you run whatever speed to calorie ration tests you want"

Caitlin blushed shaking her head "uh- no tha-thats okay I'm not qualified for that"

"No one is qualified for this" Barry pointed out "and it's not like I can go to a doctor about this" Barry set the smaller bowl in front of Alex and he grinned.

"Ice cream!"

"What do we say to Barry?"

"Thankyou" he squealed

Barry smiled at the small boy "your welcome" 

"You have spinkles?"

"No, sorry Alex I don't but we'll get some for next time okay?"

Alex nodded and went back to eating his ice cream somehow getting it all over his face, clothes and hands.

The kid was a marvel really especially considering how he managed to tell him a story about a volcano on his earth that destroyed a city called Pompeii all the while recounting facts and figures and stuffing his mouth with ice cream.

"Thanks for the food" Caitlin said while cleaning Alex up at the kitchen sink

"It's not a problem everyone needs to eat" he looked to alex "if you ask gideon she can put some cartoons on for you"

Alex frowned "who's that?"

"The ceiling lady. Shes a computer, like alexa but she's in the ceiling" Caitlin explained 

"Oh. Gidon?! Play baby shark"

"Oh no honey she doesn't know that song-"

"I have searched your earth's database Master Snow and have found the song you have requested. Playing baby shark"

Caitlin sighed "even in a different universe there is no escape" she muttered 

Barry laughed listening to the song and watched the weird hand movements Alex was making.

"This song is sort of catchy"

"Try listening to it all day everyday for 2 years. You wont think its catchy then"

"Come on mummy sing!"

"No honey I think you've got this one"

Gideon played more nursery rhymes for Alex some from this earth most mostly from there's, the bain of Barry's existence becoming the wheels on the bus especially when Alex sung it on and off for the next couple hours adding his own verses depending on the random toys he started playing with including:

The sheep on the bus go meerrr meerrr 

The fish on the bus goes blub blub blub

The cake on the bus goes yum yum yum 

And caitlins personal favourite the lego bricks on the bus go lego lego lego

Her son was strange but he was happy unlike Barry who was trying to focus on his laptop and muttering about the size of this bus that carried animals but to her surprise despite his grumbling he did join in on a verse about the wipers on the bus going swish swish swish.

Alex watched TV quitely after that saying the odd thing to meerrphy as he sat on the floor leaning back against the sofa.

Barry was sat in the arm chair tapping away at his laptop while she read through one of the books loaded on the kindle about the multiverse and integrating into a new earth. She was staying clear on the books on soulmates for now.

"Well isn't this domestic" Cisco said walking into the living room

Barry looked up from his laptop "has something happened?"

"No, I'm just checking in. How's it going? You look better"

"Thank and it's going okay Barry's is very- hospitable Alex likes him"

"Oh yeah Barrys great with kids" 

Cisco ruffled Alex's hair and Alex whined climbing onto the sofa then into his mothers lap clinging to her.

"He's had a confusing day" Caitlin explained "hes met too many people and its past his usual bedtime"

"It's okay, I'll win him over eventually. Barrys got an advantage, he almost became a school teacher" 

"Until I decided dealing with criminals was a much easier job"

"I almost went into pediatric ophthalmology" Caitlin commented 

"So you're settling in okay?" Cisco asked sitting down next to her 

"We are, thankyou"

"What are you reading?"

"New souls in society"

"Any questions?"

"What about alex? I've read 4 of these short help books already and I haven't read any mention of how to register him it's not like he was pulled here by his soulmate"

"Oh well I'm not too sure the laws are pretty vague but I think it depends on your soulmate"

"What do you mean? How can a stranger effect my son?"

"There's this automatic adoption thing that can happen when you bond with your soulmate, soulmate couples where one person comes from another earth can be tricky. On this earth it's rare that people have children with someone who's not there soulmate not because people are not having-" he looked down at Alex "S-E-X but because their bodies don't often allow it, something to do with the strands of soul DNA and fertility but you've come from an earth where soulmates aren't a thing so Alex's father was able to get you pregnant…" Cisco looked to Barry for confirmation, "Am I getting this right?"

"I think so we can always ask Stein tomorrow" 

"So what does Alex have to do with my- soul mate?" Drawing out the word tasted weird on her tongue.

"Soul DNA" Barry supplied "it can pass on to children"

"That doesn't make any sense…"

"Mummy, I play now," Alex said, reaching to grab the kindle from her.

"This isn't for playing with"

"Oh" he grabbed a fist full of her shirt and rested his head against her chest and turned to watch the cartoons on the TV instead sighing happily when she began to stroke his hair

Barry's expression was impossibly soft "it's hard to understand" he explained "but non-soulmate relationships don't often work out it's no ones fault but once you meet your soulmate there's this hormone that's released when you meet your soulmate and your body reacts that way when your around your soulmate and you become used to it, it messes with your Oxytocin levels which can cause depression and lack arousal with anyone else your romantically involved with so any romantic relationships that existed before you met your soulmate become harder, some last but most can't cope with it the body wants the soulmate… do you understand?"

"Hormones mess up relationships"

"Basically, but it's not just that non-soulmate relationships also tend to be short lived but some people prefer...cursed"

Caitlin pracitally scoffed at that "cursed?"

Barry nodded "you said that Alex's father was…" Caitlin glared at him in warning "detained"

"He is but that's not because of any curse"

"Then why is he? If you don't mind us asking"

"Cisco" Barry objected 

"You don't have to tell us"

Caitlin focused her attention on Alex and brushing a thumb over the crown of his head "...he was a violent person when he got angry he would break things, he'd scream and put his fists through walls but… uh- one day it got to the point where there was nothing left for him to break and I… I got in the way so he…umm" she couldn't say it and she couldn't look at them either 

"even after- after that first time I stayed with him for 2 more years even though he was still- well you know. It got bad but I didn't care anymore… then I got pregnant and I knew I had to leave him but he stopped and I thought this would be what calmed him down but 5 months in his football team lost a game so… I couldn't live with myself if anything happened to my baby so at my next appointment I told the midwife what was going on. It was the only time I was ever alone so it was my only chance. I got out. He got sent to prison and I had my baby… its just us now"

There was a tense silence, Barry's expression angry and cisco looking guilty "I'm sorry-"

"Don't" Caitlin cut cisco off shaking his head "you didn't even know me then and you were literally in a different universe. You can't be sorry for something you didn't know about or couldn't have prevented."

Cisco patted her shoulder awkwardly "okay… if you want to talk about it you can talk to me"

Caitlin nodded slightly but didn't respond. 

Barry hadn't said anything and she preferred it that way "your soulmate can choose to adopt Alex on the base of soulmate DNA, but not adoption like signing some paperwork its sort of like a ceremony thing it acknowledges that you've not only found your soulmate but your child like- your legitimate child, because there have been cases where the children carry the soulmates DNA, this doesn't really affect them and it doesn't mean that they'll look like them or share traits with it can just be dormant soulmate DNA" Barry ranted 

"they made a film about it, it was so good it's called something like- found my family we'll watch it at some point My mum loves it. But it can also go either way so if your soulmate has children they could share your DNA and you could adopt your soulmates child or children too… if you want"

"So I could register Alex with me or wait until I meet some random guy to see if he wants to adopt my son…"

"Well he's 2 so you don't really need to do anything with him just register him with the health care service so he can be vaccinated against the diseases on this earth but he's under the age of 12 and children that young get unlimited asylum" 

"Asylum?"

"Well it's more for you really because your likely to be experimented on if people find out about your powers and they could go after Alex…" he trailed off

Caitlin felt sick now that it had been explained.

"What are you thinking?" Barry asked 

"All I want to do is keep him safe, that's all I've ever wanted to do but just existing like this" she gestured to the cuffs she exhaled shakily "I can't even take my son home without putting him in danger"

"Your not the danger" Barry corrected 

"He's right" Cisco said "it's ignorant people"

Alex turned propping his chin on her chest and blinking up innocently at her "why you sad mummy?"

"I'm not sad" she said gently " Im just a little tiered" Alex patted her cheek clumsily 

"bedtime"

That made everyone laugh "not yet" Caitlin pressed kissed to his cheeks until he laughed

Alex climbed off the sofa and took in the room for a moment. He hovered by his toys then Alex walked over to Barry ignoring Cisco when he asked about what toys he was playing with.

To everyone's surprise Alex climbed onto the arm chair next to Barry and clumsily fell into his lap. "Working" he said pointing the laptop

"That's right" Barry agreed "your very clever"

Alex giggled and reached for the laptop "What doing?"

"Police work, these are finger prints? You see these?" Barry took the little boys hands "you have finger prints too" Barry took Alexs small hand and pointed to his fingertips "see but yours are tiny" 

Alex laughed "What that one?"

"Well I can't tell you for legal reasons but thats a bad guy"

Alex gasped "bad guy?"

"Yep. He or she stole a car"

"Why?"

"I dont know"

"Why?"

"Because I don't, it's what we're trying to figure out"

"Why?"

"Because that's my job"

"Why-"

"Alex that's enough questions, your getting on Barrys nerves"

"It's fine" Barry assured her "you can ask as many questions as you want and I'll give you the answers if I have them" 

Alex nodded like he understood the weight of what Barry just said.

"Have you started a goal list?" Cisco asked his question clearly directed at Caitlin but she had no idea what he was talking about.

"Umm… no"

"I was going to talk to her about it after Alex has gone to bed" Barry supplied 

"Oh well I have some ideas" Cisco took out his phone "Stein and I are working on the control experiment ideas, we have 5 different tests ready for tomorrow, just simple ones to understand your powers"

"Okay" Caitlin agreed "that sounds fine" 

Cisco decided to stay until Alex went to sleep so he stayed and raided Barry's fridge.

Alex began to get restless and Caitlin was about to stand prepared to take Alex back but instead Barry sat down with him on the rug and tipped out the entire box of large legos.

"Barry you don't have to entertain him it's fine you're busy and-"

"Caitlin, I am more than happy to play with him your going to be here for awhile and you said it was just you and Alex so this is going to be an adjustment for both of you-"

Alex handed him a green block and Barry accepted, thanking him and adding it to the growing tower "I'm guessing that there've been no male figures in his life either?"

Caitlin wanted to be offended but he was right.

"Not really...he sees doctor Wells sometimes but it's not the same"

"Trust is very important especially in situations like this, Alex is your child and your living in a new place with a stranger I want you to be able to trust me and I want Alex to know I'm a safe adult"

"oh, um I want that too…" Caitlin watched her son aa he pieced together some random blocks and handed them to Barry "he likes you and I don't want to worry all the time"

"You don't have to worry, I'll do everything I can to make this easier for you"

Alex knocked down the tower and thought it was absoutly halirous so much so that he erupted into belly laughs that made Barry laugh "What are doing?" He asked playfully

"I crashed it down"

"You knocked it down" Barry corrected "What did you do that for? hmm" He began to tickle Alex and he squealed, his little arms and legs flailing.

Yeah. Barry was alright.

Once Alex crashed they came up With a list of reasonable goals for her to achieve by the end of the month with week to week points.

Week one- understand the basics of the powers

Week 2- able to go short periods of time without dampening cuffs

Week 3- able to take Alex to the park with feelings of reassurance.

It sounded simple on paper.

However the next couple of weeks would prove that it was anything but.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I know a lot of you are thinking that Alex is Barry's doppelgangers son or some hoe Barry's son. Well here's your answer although we will come back to Alex's father in later chapters. 
> 
> Any questions please ask.


	5. The one with the training and the trip to the mall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Caitlin and Alex's first week on earth 1.
> 
> A knock on the open bedroom door brought her out of her musings and there Barry stood dressed ready to leave, looking ridiculously attractive in a brown leather jacket.
> 
> "Ready?"
> 
> "Uh- umm yeah"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been a while, I've been tired.
> 
> If possible can you drip me your snowbarry fanfic recommendations? Preferably long and AU

Training wasn't the problem. Finding the time to train was, with a 2 year old clinging to her throughout the day they simply couldn't find the time. She and Barry both agreed they would have to find some form of child care for Alex but since she was new here and didn't have any friends or family and they couldn't exactly invite sitters over, certain members of the team, Felicity, sara, amya and Stein had agreed to take turns watching Alex but for now Cisco stayed in the apartment while Alexs napped on the sofa.

Barry had set up baby monitors and Gideon had promised to alert them if Alex woke up.

Currently Doctor Martin Stein was draining what felt like all of her blood while Doctor Wells- or Harry as he insisted she call him- ran some tests on a cheek swab he had taken. The scientists of the team were very interested in her DNA. Martin thought she was a medical marvel while Harry was more interested in how her powers could be replicated, something that- cisco and Barry promised her they wouldn't do.

"We need the son's DNA too" Harry said, not looking up from his computer screen "when will we get it?"

"Never" Caitlin said sharply, wincing when the turn jolted her arm with the needle in. Barry was sitting next to her, Alex half asleep in his lap but if they tried to take his blood or even a hair sample she would freak and do whatever she could to protect Alex. He wasn't going to be an experiment too.

That she the older man pause "we need to be sure he doesn't have Meta DNA"

"he doesn't-"

"Up until a few days ago you didnt think you did either" Harry pointed out

"Alex is different" she argued "he-he's not like me, you said it yourself I only have these powers because of my soulmate"

"Soul DNA can be passed on to children" harry explained calmly 

She found that very hard to believe "Well it wasn't passed onto Alex" she snapped

"Caitlin-"

"No. My son is normal. He's 2 and he's normal, he's not some-some- meta or whatever. He's not-"

"Caitlin" Barry interrupted in a soothing tone, a hand running up and down Alex's back as he shifted sleepily. "Harry just wants to be sure but if you won't give your consent for the tests to be done that's fine, we won't do anything to you or to Alex without your permission. Okay?"

She swallowed his promises only somewhat reassuring "Okay" 

Harry sighed and grumbled something that she didn't quite catch. 

"I do have your permission to vaccinate Alex though don't I?" Stein asked looking up from the blood analysis machine

"Vaccinate against what?" she asked cautiously 

"Well from my research I found that our earths have similar diseases” he began to explain “However we do have a mutated version of the chicken pox that can be deadly along with a respiratory disease that doesn't exist in your universe so if your going to be going out you'll both needed to be vaccinated as soon as possible"

Caitlin nodded "yeah of course, that's fine"

"Alright all I can give you the vaccinations tomorrow you've lost quite a bit of blood today"

Caitlin nodded already internally dreading Alex getting these injections.

After running all the necessary tests she was free to go. First they had to drop a now fast asleep Alex at the apartment with Cisco and then Barry took her down to one of the training rooms where Amaya was already waiting.

"I'm just here for back up," she explained. "If something goes wrong Barry or you won't be alone, I won't interfere, promise" Caitlin nodded and nervously removed the dampening cuffs and handed them to Amaya.

"You've got this" Barry assured her "it's not like we're doing anything abrasive anyway. I have complete faith in you"

"I wouldn't" she said anxiously 

Barry smiled comfortingly "You've got this, no one expected you to master your powers today"

Barrry walked over to a pitcher of water and poured some water into a metal cup.

"We're using metal because it won't break or shatter like glass so this is as safe and simple as possible"

Caitlin nodded "alright so what do you want to do? Freeze the water?"

"Yes, use as much power as you can. I'll time it" Barry checked the temperature of the water "Gideon make a note. 400mls, 20 degrees"

"Noted" 

"Whenever you're ready" Barry said gesturing to the cup

Caitlin hesitated "Umm do I touch it or…"

"It's up to you, we can try non-contact another time but if you'd prefer non-contact then we can do that"

Caitlin dipped her head in understanding then reached out to hold the cup with both hands, the cold in her veins rushed out of her pricking under her finger tips, the water was frozen solid in 6.579 seconds.

"Good" Barry tested the temperature. He didn't tell her how cold it was instead he put some gloves on and picked up the cup and placed it on a trolley. 

The tests continued like that with bigger or smaller cups, different types of metal, different volumes of water and temperatures.

"Alright how are you feeling?" Barry asked 

"Umm… thirsty"

Barry sped away, surprised she was left to fix her hair only to feel a rush of air as Barry arrived back handing her a bottle of pepsi. She'd have to start wearing her hair up.

"how am I doing?" She asked nervously 

"Really well, your quite powerful"

"Is that- is that bad?"

"No. No it's not a bad thing it's fine, it just means your going to need more training than I thought"

"How powerful?" Amaya asked approaching them all business like with her hands on her hips.

"Well originally we thought she was a 5 or 6 now I'm thinking 8 or 9"

Amaya nodded looking to Caitlin "don't worry, while powers like yours are uncommon we have experience with them probably more experience than anyone. We'll have a meeting but I think training with Firestorm is your best option"

"Firestorm?" Caitlin repeated feeling dizzy "Is that someone with fire powers?" 

"More like nuclear pyrokinesis"

"Nuclear?! No way I'm not doing that"

"You don't really have other options" Amaya said evenly

"You can meet them first" Barry offered "and it's not like anything's finalised yet anyway, we'll discuss it first"

She still didn't like the idea but she agreed anyway.

"Alright now let's test non-contact" Barry checked his watch "I think Alex will be awake soon so we won't move on to another set of tests today" Barry poured water into a metal cup and placed it on the table between them "alright, when your ready"

"I think you should stand this side" Caitlin said anxiously "I don't want to hurt you"

"You can't hurt me" he assured her 

"I don't know, you might be fast but this-" she held up her hands as they started frosting over "this is pretty quick too"

"I doubt you'll manage to hit me on your first attempt but even if you did" Barry picked up one of the frozen solid cups from earlier and vibrated his hands the cup blurred until water sloshed over the sides "...see?" He held the cup of water out to her the contents sloshing inside "I'm pretty good at warming things up"

"Oh… thats-” she swallowed her mind racing trying to figure out the extent of the flashes powers “that's good"

Non-contact from a distance really stressed her out since she had trouble aiming something that Barry found hilarious whenever she missed the cup and instead froze the try or even the wall behind it but overall it wasn't bad, they barely made it halfway through when gideon alerted them that Alex was awake as the baby monitor attached to her hip projected his cries.

"Alright, I think that's enough for today anyway. You did good" Barry praised "I think we deserve pizza" 

"Always thinking with your stomach" Amaya said rolling her eyes 

Barry smirked "there are worst thing to think with" 

Caitlin hardly suppressed the laugh.

Back in the apartment they found Alex crying and Cisco trying to calm him down. 

"Mummy" he sobbed running to her with a speed that could rival Barry’s as soon as he saw her "mummy"

"It's okay" Caitlin picked him up and sat him on her hip "what's with all the tears huh?"

He sniffled but didn't respond.

"I swear I didn't do anything" Cisco began looking frightful “he woke up and when he couldn't find you he just got upset"

"It’s okay Cisco. He gets like this sometimes" Caitlin bounced him a few times while pacing and running a hand up and down Alex's back to calm him down. "It's usually just the two of us so…"

"Oh… I guess that makes sense" Cisco checked the time "I wish I could stay but I have a hot date with Harry" he rolled his eyes "he's got a few ideas about the-..." Cisco looked at Caitlin guilty and it became obvious there were projects here she couldn't know about, as much as she didn't trust them they were weary of her to "Well the thing…" he finished clumsily giving Barry a look he seemed to understand.

Barry nodded "yeah the thing…"

Caitlin pretended not to notice "thankyou for watching him"

"That's alright" Cisco returned he smiled and Alex "by little buddy"

Alex just glared at him.

"Right okay" he cleared his throat and bid them goodbye

Caitlin set Alex down only for him to whine and try to climb back into her lap. "Alex" Barry said sitting down on the rug "come here, I got you something" he held a hand out to the toddler who looked skeptical until Caitlin gave him a soft nudge.

They had talked about this, this morning. Barry had wanted to buy something for Alex to distract him from everything going on Caitlin had told him not to at first because Barry had done a lot for them already but she wasn't able to go out and buy things for her son and Barry said that this would be good for bonding.

"What that? What that Bu'wary?" He asked cautiously, he inspected the box with a furrowed box

"These are finger paints," Barry said, sounding almost proud at his own idea. Caitlin sat forward in interest smiling at Alex's wide smile. "Remember yesterday when we talked about fingerprints? Well your a little young to go into forensic sciences but that doesn't mean we can't experiment with your finger prints"

Alex lit up "we painting?"

"Yes we are" he confirmed with a smile "does that sound fun?"

Alex bounced up and down excitedly reaching for the box "now buwary"

"It's up to your mother" he said looking to Caitlin

Alex looked to Caitlin too and she was struck with two pleading impatient expressions that she couldn't say no to "mummy, I paint with bu'ary"

"Alright" she said easily “the paint washes out doesn't it?” she asked as an afterthought

“Yep and it's free of toxins, completely child friendly, i did my research”

Caitlin shook her head in amusement, he was taking all of this very seriously “well then have fun” Barry set it up on the kitchen table and Caitlin sat to the side of them while going through some legal documents Cisco had sent her in order to register them with the NHS which was world wide in this universe.

Alex had always been a good kid, he wasn't too loud or too messy and he wasn't one for tantrums but he was shy however, it seemed that those rules didn't apply when it came to Barry. He was acting like he had known the man since birth. 

Alex laughed, dropping his whole hand in the paint then slapping the paper. 

"Wow that's so colourful" Barry praised "look that's your hand print, you see the lines?" Alex nodded pensively "well there special to you, no one else has the same hand prints as you"

"It um- vewy spec-special?"

"Yeah" Barry agreed "your very special" 

Caitlin smiled at that, Barry looked up at that same moment meeting her eyes. He smiled softly and gestured to his own paint covered hands "You can join us"

"I don't know, you two seem to be having fun there. Besides you wanted to bond with him and I think your doing a pretty good job" Caitlin paused "and by bond I mean the non-mystical kind, you know regular getting to know you..." she grimaced not knowing anything about soulmate ettic and if it was even a topic talked about so freely

"I know what you mean" he assured her "and I didn't just say I wanted to get to know Alex"

"Oh…" she trailed off looking from him to the paints and then to Alex who was muttering to himself while making a mess of the table. "Um… are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure" he nodded to the paperwork "unless that's more important"

"This can wait"

Barry nodded, setting a piece of paper aside for her next to Alex so the young boy was between them.

"What are you painting?" Caitlin asked, eyeing the blobs of green, red and yellow.

"Earff"

"Oh… which one?" Caitlin hesitantly asked not sure if he remembered much of their conversation from the day before. "Our earth?

Alex didn't respond for a short while and she noticed Barry awaiting on his answer to. "Umm- it tat one mummy"

"This one?" she asked pointing to a mess of purple and yellow

Alex shook his head "not this earff"

"So our earth? Is that where we live?"

Alex shook his head "no- it- it a different one mummy"

"Ah… umm okay" Caitlin hadn't expected that but Alex was still young and he didn't always understand what he was doing.

Mindlessly Caitlin painted flowers with her thumb prints as petals and it looked like Barry was attempting to make some sort of bird.

"Am finished now" Alex declared 

"Oh wow" Barry said dramatically "look at that! That's amazing. I wish my painting was that good" 

Alex giggled, shaking his head and reaching over for Barry's painting but while in the process his arm knocked the green paint and she was sure he had knocked it off the table but within the same second Barry had steaded the paint pot and was now holding it.

She was still getting used to his powers so she was a bit startled but it was Alex's reaction that surprised her. 

He looked from Barry to the paint pot then to where the paint pot had been- it was quite comedic actually until of course Alex's eyes welled with tears and he looked to his mother in confusion. 

"Oh no no no don't cry" Barry tried to comfort him "I'm sorry I scared you buddy"

Alex's lower lip trembled and he shook his head, his paint covered hands grabbing ahold of Caitlin's jacket before she could get him to clean up. "Mummy, why buwary do that like that?"

Confused. Caitlin ran his sentence over in her head again "why did barry do what like that?"

Alex shrugged helplessly and she looked to Barry for an answer but he seemed just as confused.

"Alex, your mum actually talked to you about this already remember? Magic"

Alex pouted "buarry magic?"

"Somethings like that" he agreed with a comforting smile "but you don't need to be scared okay? I know it's confusing"

Barry vibrated his hand as an example slower than Caitlin knew he could go if the session earlier was any indication.

Alex stared at his hand, eyes widening into saucers. The mirror image of caitlins surprise before she fainted.

"I’m very fast you see?" Barry whized around the kitchen and came back with a banana 

Alex nodded seriously like he understood how important this conversation was "I have that pwease" he said reaching to the banana and just like that the conversation was finished. Alex didn't react much to his speed after that he had just accepted it.

Barry had been surprised at first but he figured the kid was 2 he would accept anything, at this age their brains were easy to mould he was just thankful that he hadn't freaked the kid out.

***

By the time the week was over Caitlin had reached her goal and she was able to keep her powers under control without the cuffs on although she only practiced this when Alex was in bed, the point was she was handling it and Barry had agreed to take them shopping today.

Alex was up at the crack of dawn like usual and bouncing around like his blood was Redbull while Caitlin sipped coffee half asleep. It was hard to believe this was the same child from yesterday he had been hysterical when doctor Stein had given him the vaccines.

Screaming and crying and kicking constantly trying to get away, as soon as he heard the word ‘shot’ he was a man on a mission- well an almost 3 year old boy determined to get his way. She tried everything. She tried holding him in her lap, distracting him with her phone bribing him with chocolate and games but nothing had worked. She didn't know where this phobia had come from but it sure did make the doctors job alone more harder.

When Barry arrived to see what was taking so long Caitlin had been stressed to the point of tears and Alex was red faced from all the crying.

Stien had said something to Barry that Caitlin hadn't heard but the next thing she knew Barry was snapping on rubber gloves assuring Alex that this would be very quick. He silently asked her for his permission and she gave it with a small nod because it had been a long day and she just wanted her son to get these shots so they could cuddle up in their room and watch a movie.

It all happened very quickly. Before Alex had the chance to pull away or even register the sharp prick. He cried anyway. He did settle down after crying into her shirt for half an hour. Barry had felt so bad that he'd ran to the other side of the city to buy Alex a toy doctor's kit, he bought her a bath set with bubble baths and essential oils meant to calm the mind- which she really appreciated.

Alex had calmed down when Barry had put on the plastic doctors badge and started pricking and prodding himself with the flimsy exaggerated equipment. The little boy calmed down enough to play with Barry and was laughing within 5 minutes like the entire horror show that was her afternoon never happened.

"You can go for a bath or a nap or something if you want, take some 'me time' you've definitely earned it"

She had been hesitant. She didn't leave strangers with her child, the only people she really trusted with Alex including the babysitter had known Alex since he was a baby. But Alex was laughing and Barry was so good with him and she was in desperate need of a bubble bath.

So she gave herself 40 minutes. a short break before she tackled Alex's bedtime routine.

She took the baby monitor in with her placing it in the floor next to the bath and she spent most of her time smiling or laughing at the doctor patient game they were playing where for some reason Barry was a spaceman who got his foot stuck in the moon so he needed a dragon doctor to fix it for him.

A knock on the open bedroom door brought her out of her musings and there Barry stood dressed ready to leave, looking ridiculously attractive in a brown leather jacket.

"Ready?"

"Uh- umm yeah" she shrugged on her jacket making a note to buy herself a new coat spring was fading away so it wasn't too cold but autumn would hit soon

"Okay, well I've installed the car seat but you might want to check it for yourself"

"Alright" 

"Alex is excited" Barry said leaning against the door frame as she checked her reflection in the mirror smoothing out non-existent wrinkles "there's a nice ice cream place with self serve toppings, I thought we could go there after lunch"

"Lunch?"

"Yeah well I need to eat" he said sounding embarrassed "if you don't think your ready for that, its okay I can bring a sandwich or something"

"No um that's okay, lunch sounds nice and you need to eat" 

"You're sure?"

"Yeah. You've done a lot for us and we're grateful" she swallowed. She wasn't very affectionate (anymore) and she didn't talk about her feelings but she was so thankful for Barry. He fought for her and Alex from the beginning, he was so kind and understanding and patient and he was so good. She was actually emotional just thinking about it.

"You don't have to thank me-"

"But I do" she cut in "I do- we- I…" she had too many fucking emotions and too much to say but the words wouldn't come out "I am very thankful that you- well for everything and it- with everything your just so good and I- umm" she exhaled looking away from him and his stupid perfect face as she tried to gather her thoughts "I just want to thank you…" she trailed off lamley

"Your welcome" 

She wasn't affectionate, but this was a hugging moment so she hugged him. It was awkward at first because Barry hadn't expected it and there was the height difference and Barry was holding his lower body away from her like an awkward teenager.

He smelled nice.

Like really good. She did get an electric shock from him though and they both laughed until he relaxed, hugging her back.

Caitlin missed hugs. She had Alex sure but there was a difference between hugging her son and hugging her friend… were they friends?

She pulled away first, still not too comfortable with affection and Barry offered her a sheepish smile and she looked away "umm- where's Alex's?" 

"He's putting his toys away" 

"Well we best not keep the boss waiting"

Barry nodded his agreement "yeah I hear he can be really tight about these things"

They both laughed and continued into the living room where Alex was playing with his toys instead of putting them away.

"Alright little man it's time to go" Barry announced 

Alex bounced towards them, putting his arms out to his mother and making a whining noise. 

"Use your words" Caitlin chided

"Up, pwease" 

Caitlin picked him up and Alex rested his head on her shoulder. "Alright Snows, let's go"

***

Shopping as Barry was coming to realise, was so much harder with a woman and child.

Alex wanted to touch everything and he walked agonisingly slowly even when holding on to his or Caitlin's hand. 

Caitlin had to look at everything. Taking her time smelling the candles and picking out products for her skin based on the ingredients.

Barry had super speed and he had for the better part of 5 years now so shopping with the Snows was frustrating. He didn't tell them this though. His mother was always telling him he needed to slow down so that's what he was trying to do. She had never said anything about a snail's pace though.

But he was bored out of his mind. Barry mainly bought things online or he sped to the shops and around the aisles before using the self check out he usually went to the store late at night so his speed wasn't really noticed but thankfully the people of Central city not only accepted the flashes tendency to whiz in and out of the shops they welcomed it even putting up signs 'the flash shops here' and 'superhero friendly'. But right now he was Barry Allen. So he walked at regular human speed- well more like dordeled and made a game of it whenever Caitlin started browsing Barry would try to guess what she would pick up next or what Alex was going to grab.

Clothes shopping was interesting. Caitlin bought Alex several outfits often asking for his opinion on what children wore, the fashion wasn't that different from the earth that they were from but the outfits were more comfortable like leggings, baggy jumpers, thick cardigans and a lot of denim. Children wore similar clothes but one of the main differences being that there were a lot of superhero merchandise.

Barry didn't tell Caitlin but he bought Alex a T-shirt with the flash logo on because it was adorable and he was the fash and he knew it would make the others jealous and well he was the flash.

Caitlin didn't seem to be buying anything for herself so he offered to take Alex to the small play area in the mall while she shopped.

"I don't know…" she said nervously "I mean you're not scared I'm going to kill anyone?"

"Well do you plan on killing anyone?"

An old woman passing by pulled a face huffing and shaking her head. 

"...no" 

"Well then everythings fine. You have the dampeners and there's a tracker on your phone" he lowered his voice "and I have super powers. So if anything happens I'll know where you are''

Alex made an impatient sound and tugged on Barry's hand, Caitlin pursed her lips and dropped down to alex's height fussing with the lapels of his jacket "hey, I need to do some shopping" she said gesturing to the shop behind her "do you want to come with me or do you want to go with Barry?"

Alex bounced on the balls of his feet "you too mummy, you come?"

"No, no baby just you and Barry. How does that sound? Does it sound okay?"

Alex nodded "okay"

Surprised she looked from Barry to Alex "okay?" 

Alex nodded "yes" he tugged on Barrys hand "I go with bu'ary"

Caitlin rose to her full height again "alright…" she looked to Barry "look after him"

"I will"

"Be careful"

"I will"

"Don't let him talk to strangers"

"I won't"

"Dont-"

"Caitlin" he interrupted "I've got this okay" he offered her a reassuring smile and it had an unfair way of relaxing her.

"...okay." she ruffled Alex's hair "be good for Barry"

He nodded smiling brightly "I won't be long, if you need me then just tell Barry"

Alex nodded and caitlin looked to Barry "if anything happens to him-"

"It won't" he assured her 

Caitlin had always been an anxious parent, more anxious than most but that was because she was a single mother and after everything she went through with Hunter she had major trust issues. 

She thinks she trusts Barry though… She trusts him enough to leave him alone with Alex in public. Granted it wasn't for long as she finished her shopping in less than half an hour but she still wasn't completely comfortable with the idea. But it's not like Barry set off any alarm bells and he hadn't been anything less of patient and kind to them. You could never be too careful though.

When she found them Barry was sitting in the ball pit with not only Alex but a bunch of other kids who were throwing the plastic balls at him and laughing loudly. The speedster had gotten the attention of a lot of the parents and she couldn't blame them; it was an adorable sight.

Alex was throwing the balls with all his might at Barry's chest and throwing his head back in laughter whenever Barry threw one back. It was obvious that he wasn't aiming to hit the children with the plastic balls but he was still throwing the hollow balls back at them only they landed behind them or next to them.

When Alex spotted her he threw a ball to her which she promptly caught shaking her head fondly "you two look like your having fun"

Alex laughed his cheeks tinted red from all the laughter. "I'm wined" He exclaimed reaching his arms out to her 

"Oh is that right?" Caitlin asked her eyes flicking to Barry who matched her sons smile 

"Yup!" Caitlin picked him out of the ball pit and into her arms "ooh let's get you some juice huh? Your all hot" she could feel the heat radiating from Alex caused by all the running around.

Barry said goodbye to the other children and settled down at a table with them. Caitlin bought herself and Barry a pepsi and Alex a fruit juice.

Alex rambled very loudly about how much fun he was having with 'bw'areey' 

Caitlin listened seriously, smiling in Barrys direction wherever her son laughed at something or talked about him.

"Do you want to get a bed for Alex? We can do up the other guest room so he can have his own room, its mainly used for storage but I'm sure I can sort it out or we can just get him a bed for your room" 

"Oh umm- thats okay" Caitlins said not ready to accept the permanence of this yet or the fact that Alex wouldn't be back in his own bed at home for a while or- ever. "we don't mind sharing for now"

"well if you change your mind just tell me and we'll sort something out"

Caitlin nodded once and turned her attention back to her son who was quietly sipping his juice.

Barry checked the time "alright I'm hungry"

"I hung-arey to" Alex said matter of factory 

"Alright then" Caitlin stood shaking of any melancholy thoughts of home "we can't have you boys going hungry can we?"

Alex laughed at that and Caitlin wasn't sure why but the boy hadn't stopped laughing since she got back and she loved that, Alex's laugh was loud and full and just perfect.

Lunch was going better than she'd expected, she thought that she might be more worried then she was but once they were settled at a table Alex distracted by the crayons and paper that they had given him she found herself actually relaxing, here she could almost pretend she was back on her earth, she was surrounded by people who didn't know anything about her. People who didn't know where she was from or what she could do and it was an oddly nice feeling. 

Alex ate all of his lunch he was much more comfortable in the booster seat that a waitress had brought him so he could reach the table (Barry made a mental note to buy one as soon as he could) he even shared some of barrys and Caitlins food, he was very hyper today and the speedster was sure he had never known anyone with so much energy.

Next they went to a shop that sold expensive towels and bedding. Caitlin got herself a towel in blood red and ordered a smaller one for Alex to be embodied like the one they had left at home. She bought a wax burner and too many wax melts.

Barry bought some blankets explaining dramatically that winter was coming.

This earth was colder than hers, they didn't have global warming so the winters were Cold and the summers were hot. It was the end of September and autumn was creeping in, there was a slight chill but it wasn't so cold that they needed to wear heavy coats.

The last store they went into had toys and Alex became obsessed with a huge giant Teddy bear. It was 4 times the size of him and Alex loved it.

"Bear mummy bear! Big bear"

"It is a big bear" Caitlin said eyeing it "to big in fact"

Alex pouted grabbing at the bear "I have bear"

She should've seen this coming "No, its too much money and I've already bought you some toys today"

"You know there's not much of a spending limit on the credit card you were provided we do have money, A lot of money" Barry said casually 

She grit her teeth "I know but the bear is too much. It's huge, where will it even go?"

"We can keep it in the other spare room it'll be his room anyway"

"I don't know" Caitlin said skeptically "I don't think it'll fit on your car"

"I have bear pwease mummy, so big" he squealed 

Barry made an awwe sound and she shook her head "i'm not getting him the bear"

"But look he loves it, how can you say no to him?"

"I've had practice"

"I get bear now mummy" Alex said trying to lift it up

"No. Not now. Maybe for your birthday" she bargained

"When that?"

"Next month"

Alex whined "bear now"

"No" Caitlins repeated taking his hand "no bear"

"But its my friend"

"Alex I'm not getting you that bear"

Alex pouted but thankfully didn't throw a tantrum Caitlin distracted him by asking him what he was going to put on his ice cream.

They paid for everything and then went for ice cream the bear long forgotten.

"So Alex," Barry began pointing his spoon with ice cream dripping from the end at him "it's your birthday soon, how old are you going to be? 21?"

Alex giggled shaking his head and dug his spoon into his ice cream covered in way more strawberry sauce than was healthy 

"Fwee" he said proudly 

"Three wow" Barry said dramatically "so you're going to be driving soon huh?"

Alex nodded seriously "I drive mummys car"

"You pretend to drive my car" Caitlin corrected 

"No mummy the game- with bad tur-tals"

"Oh" Caitlin nodded in understanding "Mario kart"

"Mario kart?" Barry asked 

Cailtin looked mortified "you don't Mario kart here?"

"Uh- no I don't think so…" he trailed off "I'll look it up" Barry took out his phone and typed something into the search bar then paused "umm no we don't have Mario kart"

"I think I brought it with me actually, I brought the Nintendo switch and a bunch of games, I think that's one of them. Maybe Cisco can see if it can be adapted to this earth's technology. I think you'll like it"

Barry nodded "yeah I love evil turtles"

"Me to!" Alex agreed over enthusiastically and Barry gave him a High Five.

Ice cream finished they went back to the apartment and even though it wasn't late Caitlin was exhausted, Alex had fallen asleep on the car journey back all the excitement tiring him out

"Your back" Felicity greeted as soon as she stepped off the elevator "how did it go?"

"We've barely been back 5 minutes," Barry said, dropping onto the sofa.

"Did you get what I asked for?"

"There in the kitchen. Don't tell Oliver it was me"

Felicity rushed into the kitchen and came back with some sweets. "I love you so much"

"I know" 

"What are those?" Caitlin asked curiously 

"They're called niceees. Oliver doesn't let me have them because of all the sugar"

"He doesn't let you have them because you once gave yourself the sugar shakes and you whined about the caverties after"

She looked betrayed "I just love them so much. It's worth it at first they taste like strawberry then lemon and then it just dissolves" she sighed happily popping one of the sweets into her mouth "thank god for sugar. What's your favourite snack? You know there's a shop in national city that sells snacks from all over the multiverse, you should add that to your list Barry" 

"What list?" Caitlin asked confused 

"Um- it was supposed to be a surprise" he said frowning at Felicity 

She winced "sorry"

"I've created a list of places that I want to take you and Alex when your powers are under control"

"Oh…" she trailed off a blush spreading to her cheeks "that sounds nice"

"I wanted it to be a surprise" he continued shooting an irked look at Felicity "it was going to be like a road trip… we could rent a camper van and I have a telescope and I think Alex would like the stars and there's this beach that has pebbles in perfect circles and it's just really nice and you'll love it"

Felicity huffed "didn't take you long to get all domesticated did it?"

"I'm not domesticated" Barry argued "I- I just like- camper vans?"

Felicity laughed "sure, sure"

Caitlin covered his hands with hers to calm him down "I think it's a good idea, it sounds fun. It's very thoughtful of you"

Barry shot Felicity a look that clearly communicated 'I told you so'

"Anyway I've got to go" Felicity glanced at her watch "I've got a Queen consolidates thing" she paused "oh and Oliver told me to tell you not to forget about family dinner on Sunday Caitlin and Alex are expected to, tell gideon if you have any dietary requirements and we'll make sure there considered"

Caitlin didn't know what she was talking about and she wanted to ask more questions but Felicity was already leaving.

"...family dinner?" She questioned

We do it once every 3 weeks, for team building purposes"

Caitlin frowned "but I'm not part of the team"

"Of course you are. You're not a superhero like some of us but you are here and you have powers, come to family dinner it's fun we watch movies after and Oliver is cooking and he's a great cook"

"I don't know… can I say no?"

His expression softened "you can always say no. But I'd prefer it if you didn't this will be good for you and I'm sure everyone will love Alex, you have nothing to worry about'' 

She pressed her lips together in thought and exhaled slowly "I think- it- will it be child friendly?"

"Of course"

Her shoulders dropped in defeat apparently she couldn't use her son to get out of social interactions like she did back home "okay then"

"You won't regret it"

She hoped not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I know this chapter is crap and if you haven't guessed already I'm British and I've made the world I my fanfic like British society because I know a lot about it and I live the NHS and I think health care should be free world wide and in my made up world it is. 
> 
> If you have any questions or any criticisms please comment.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm just putting this out there, I already have a lot of this story written. The chapters will be longer in future. 
> 
> Tell me what you think, I've been anxious about publishing this.


End file.
